1. During the pandemic, Nicola Sturgeon made Government decisions over WhatsApp. She was ordered by the United Kingdom Covid inquiry to retain those messages. The former First Minister promised to provide them. She said:

“I have nothing to hide.”

However, we now know that she deleted them all. She broke promises to grieving families. She may have broken the law. Does the First Minister accept that it was completely wrong and utterly scandalous for Nicola Sturgeon to delete those messages? (S6F-02733)

Before I answer Douglas Ross’s question of substance, I say at the outset, given that this is the First Minister’s question time before Holocaust memorial day, that it has never been more important to remember the victims of the Holocaust and, indeed, the genocides that followed. Together, we remember the millions of lives that have been cut short with the utmost cruelty and brutality. The freedom and dignity of every citizen relies on our willingness to defend each other’s human rights and to stand up against cruelty and violence everywhere in the world. It is a responsibility that we share equally. It is the responsibility of all of us to remember the Holocaust and, of course, to pay tribute to the survivors of those atrocities. Ahead of Holocaust memorial day on Saturday, my thoughts today—and, I hope, my thoughts every day—are with those who were affected then and those who are affected still. [

Applause

.]

I come to the issue of substance. I will start this exchange, as I have started exchanges on the issue in recent weeks and months, by giving first and foremost an unreserved apology to those families who were bereaved by Covid for our handling of informal communications, such as WhatsApps. As an organisation, we did not handle the request for the WhatsApp messages in a way that gave families who have been bereaved by Covid confidence—in fact, it was quite the opposite. They have asked for nothing unreasonable. They have asked for answers and for the truth. I will certainly give that when I appear in front of the inquiry later today.

Douglas Ross is asking me about Nicola Sturgeon. I believe that it has now been confirmed that Nicola Sturgeon will appear in front of the Covid inquiry next week. She will answer for herself.

As per our records management policy, when it comes to any decisions that are made, whether they are made using WhatsApp or discussed over email or telephone call or any other method of communication, it is so important that salient points are uploaded to the corporate record.

I will end on this point by saying to Douglas Ross that we have handed over 28,000 WhatsApp messages, including mine. That is in stark contrast to the Prime Minister, of course.

I fully associate myself with the First Minister’s remarks ahead of Holocaust memorial day on Saturday.

I asked a very simple question about what the First Minister feels about Nicola Sturgeon deleting those messages, and we heard nothing.

Although Nicola Sturgeon led the cover-up and the secrecy, she was not alone. The then Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, also deleted his messages. Is it not telling that neither of them can be in the chamber today?

Although they deleted messages, let us look at some of the messages that we have seen. The chief medical officer, Professor Gregor Smith, reminded colleagues in a WhatsApp chat to

“Delete at the end of every day.”

Ken Thomson, the former Scottish Government director general, wrote:

“I feel moved at this point to tell you that this chat is FOI-recoverable .”

He went on to say:

“Plausible deniability is my middle name.”

A message from the national clinical director, Jason Leitch, said:

“WhatsApp deletion is a pre-bed ritual.”

He also said:

“Just my usual reminder to delete your chat ... particularly after we reach a conclusion.”

From politicians to civil servants, they sought to destroy evidence. Does that not show a culture of secrecy running through this entire Scottish National Party Government?

The First Minister:

Douglas Ross talks about a culture of secrecy, but we handed over 28,000 messages and 19,000 documents. [

Interruption

.]

Let us hear the First Minister.

The First Minister:

The former First Minister did 250 media briefings, taking questions from journalists day after day. The accusations from Douglas Ross, of a Government that was hiding from scrutiny, hardly ring true. Far from that, the former First Minister stood up every day and took questions. [

Interruption

.]

The Presiding Officer:

Excuse me, First Minister. Many members wish to put questions in this session. It will make it far more likely that those will be taken if we can hear one another.

The First Minister:

I assume that all the accusations that Douglas Ross is throwing at the former First Minister and the former Deputy First Minister—of course, they will give evidence to the inquiry, and I do not intend to prejudge that or put words in their mouths—ring true for his colleague the Prime Minister, who has not handed over a single WhatsApp message. If the accusations that Douglas Ross is making against Nicola Sturgeon and throwing at the former Deputy First Minister do not hold true for the Prime Minister, who has not handed over a single message, that is not just political opportunism but breathtaking hypocrisy.

That is risible and embarrassing from the First Minister. Let us look at the facts. Nicola Sturgeon destroyed all her messages, and she did that deliberately. However, some messages have been recovered from other people. This morning’s Covid inquiry session with Liz Lloyd, Nicola Sturgeon’s former chief of staff, has revealed that, unquestionably, Covid decisions were made on WhatsApp. There are many examples in her evidence, but let us take just one. With just two hours to go before a statement in the Parliament, Nicola Sturgeon said on WhatsApp that she was “not sure” what to do about the number of people at weddings and funerals. Her chief of staff said:

“I think as we only just put them up just leave it … I think we stay at 20.”

Therefore, a Government decision to stay at 20 was taken over WhatsApp.

Humza Yousaf has previously said:

“The Scottish Government did not routinely make decisions through WhatsApp.”—[

Official Report

, 26 October 2023; c 11.]

Did the First Minister mislead the Parliament when he said that, or did he not realise that Government policy—[

Interruption

.]

The Presiding Officer:

Members, we must hear one another.

I am happy to repeat this to SNP members, who seem to want to drown it out. Did the First Minister mislead Parliament when he said that, or did he not realise that Scottish Government policy was being made on the hoof over WhatsApp?

The First Minister:

“WhatsApp is a communication application rather than a decision-making tool. Instead, each minister is supported by a private office; that team comprises private secretaries and administrative staff, and that private office records the specific decisions of ministers for the official record.”

Members are laughing, but that is from the Scotland Office. When we asked it for Douglas Ross’s WhatsApp messages, it refused to release them.

The point is that WhatsApp is not routinely used—[

Interruption

.]

The Presiding Officer:

Members.

The First Minister:

Douglas Ross literally read out my quote. It is not routinely used to make decisions. If it was—[

Interruption

.]. Opposition members are getting up in arms over what Douglas Ross has said.

The Presiding Officer:

First Minister,

I am sorry, but I cannot hear a word that you are saying, and that will be the case for those who are visiting the Parliament today. I ask all members to remember the requirement to conduct our business in an orderly manner.

The First Minister:

The truth is inconvenient for the Conservatives, because it is very simple. If decisions were made over WhatsApp, they would have to be recorded. Otherwise, how on earth would they be actioned? All salient points and key decisions are recorded on the corporate record and taken forward.

To go back to the point that I made in response to the first question that Douglas Ross asked, I believe that there are challenges in relation to our use of WhatsApp. Frankly, in relation to the handling of those requests, it has not been the Government’s finest hour. I put my hands up to that—unlike other Governments.

That is why I have commissioned officials to deliver an externally led review—not a Government review—into the use of mobile messaging apps and the use of non-corporate technology in the Scottish Government. That should take particular account of our interaction with statutory public inquires.

When it comes to being transparent, I go back to the point that I have made, which is that the Government handed over 28,000 messages and 19,000 documents. I, as First Minister of the Government, have handed over my WhatsApp messages. That is in stark contrast to the UK Government and the Prime Minister, who has refused to hand over a single message and who, of course, took the inquiry to court, only to lose.

There was so much in that.

First, I am not sure what the First Minister was speaking about in relation to my own WhatsApp messages, but, to be absolutely clear, I provided my WhatsApps from my time as a Government minister to the Covid inquiry. They are there on the record. Unlike senior nationalists, I did not delete mine.

The evidence that we have heard today is, quite frankly, shocking. It confirms that pandemic decisions by the SNP were made for political purposes. [

Interruption

.]

What?

They are saying, “What?” [

Interruption

.] The education secretary is saying, “What on earth?”

Let me say that Nicola Sturgeon’s chief of staff talked of making “purely political” moves on public health to start a

“good old-fashioned rammy” with the UK Government.

In another handwritten note, she says that she is going to look at

“political tactics—calling for things we can’t do.”

Hiding revelations such as those must have been the reason that the SNP Government destroyed so much evidence. The First Minister, the Deputy First Minister, the national clinical director and the chief medical officer all deleted their messages. Discussions and crucial decisions have vanished. A top-down culture of secrecy was rife throughout this entire Government. It looks as though the most senior figures have engaged in a deliberate cover-up.

The Presiding Officer:

Can I have your question, Mr Ross?

Now that it has been confirmed that the SNP made some crucial Covid decisions for “purely political” reasons, is Humza Yousaf ashamed that the SNP Government made purely political decisions during the pandemic, and is that not the ultimate betrayal of the public, who sacrificed so much?

The First Minister:

I reject the charge in its entirety. We published regularly regarding the four harms approach that we took to decisions that were made in relation to the pandemic.

I can say with confidence that, every single day, our overarching priority was always to keep the people of this country safe.

Political tactics. Calling for things you could not do!

The Presiding Officer:

Mr Ross.

The First Minister:

That was the overarching priority.

Did we get every decision right? Absolutely not, and we will be rightly questioned about that in both the UK and Scottish inquiries. However, I know that our motivation, every step of the way, was to ensure that we kept the people of this country safe.

Was that not in stark contrast, of course, to a UK Government holding parties in number 10 and holding parties in the Treasury, and the obscene spectacle of the then Prime Minister—[

Interruption

.]

The Presiding Officer:

Members.

The First Minister:

— flagrantly breaching the rules while loved ones, individuals and families could not go to their loved ones’ funerals? Throughout all that, Douglas Ross has not had the decency to apologise once.