First Minister Humza Yousaf faces questions from journalists over government WhatsApp messages

The Scotsman

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross challenges the first minister on whether government WhatsApp messages have been handed to the Covid inquiries  Humza Yousaf insists his government is complying with both the Scottish and UK Covid inquiries fully

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00:04 All relevant information, correspondence of any type, including social media messages,

00:08 will be handed over. I of course heard what the Council had to say this morning, just

00:12 a moment ago before going into the Chamber for First Minister's Questions. We take on

00:16 board what's being said by Council very seriously, therefore we'll investigate. But there is

00:20 a process whereby information will have to be handed over, but we will fully cooperate.

00:24 Do not forget, the Government, we decided to make sure that we set up a separate Scottish

00:29 Inquiry because we wanted there to be full transparency.

00:31 You've had a long time to hand these over?

00:33 No, the Inquiry is going to take quite a while. I've handed over, of course, a statement to

00:39 an Inquiry myself. It will be thorough, it will be detailed, we'll make sure all relevant

00:43 correspondence, whether it's email, social media messages, whatever it is, is handed

00:48 over. I take seriously what the Council had to say this morning, it's a serious matter,

00:51 and therefore it will be internally investigated, and we'll explain to the Inquiry the process

00:55 we're going through to hand over all relevant information.

00:57 Had you or have any of your Ministers or previous Ministers ever used auto-delete on WhatsApp?

01:02 I don't know if any of my Ministers have used auto-delete on WhatsApp, but we don't routinely

01:05 conduct parliamentary business through WhatsApp.

01:09 I mean you did, Prime Minister.

01:11 No, no, we use WhatsApp to have conversations, that's not unusual to anybody else.

01:16 But you personally used WhatsApp while Health Secretary during the Covid Inquiry, why haven't

01:21 any of your WhatsApps been put forward?

01:23 All relevant information that has been asked for will be sent across, but routinely decisions

01:29 weren't made via WhatsApp.

01:30 They were, thank you.

01:31 Read your WhatsApp messages.

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