Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 15 November 2023
15 Nov 2023 · S6 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Scottish Ministerial Code (First Minister and Deputy First Minister)
I do not have time.
In relation to messages that have been collated by the Scottish Government, we sought and received from the UK inquiry a section 21 notice to ensure that we could process lawfully personal information that is contained in the messages. With that legal basis in place, we have transferred to the inquiry more than 14,000 group messages and a further 14,000 messages that were sent between individuals. That takes the total number of messages that have been shared with the inquiry to almost 28,000. I should clarify that I have not seen the messages that have been transferred to the inquiry, but I am advised that they include messages from current and former ministers and civil servants.
There will, of course, be material and messages that will have been provided by individual witnesses who have received rule 9 requests. However, to be clear, ministers do not have access to the responses of individuals. Those are, rightly, matters between those individuals and the inquiry.
With your indulgence, Deputy Presiding Officer, I have a few comments to make on record retention.
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Liam McArthur)
LD
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Douglas Ross (Highlands and Islands) (Con)
Con
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Martin Whitfield (South Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
Does Douglas Ross agree that one of the Nolan principles is accountability, according to which public office holders should “submit themselves to the scruti...
Douglas Ross
Con
I absolutely agree with the member, who chairs the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee in Parliament. Let us not forget that previous SNP...
Daniel Johnson (Edinburgh Southern) (Lab)
Lab
Would Douglas Ross agree that, because what is at stake here is the context of key decisions that were made in Government at a time of crisis, the failure to...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
LD
Douglas Ross, I can give you the time back.
Douglas Ross
Con
I absolutely agree with Daniel Johnson, and I will say this, repeatedly: it is not up to the Scottish Government and SNP ministers to say what is relevant or...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
LD
Mr Ross, I think that you are well aware of standing orders in relation to accusations that members have deliberately misled this Parliament. I give a warnin...
Douglas Ross
Con
I am grateful, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I will be careful. However, I believe that this was deliberate, because those statements were not a simple slip...
The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance (Shona Robison)
SNP
I hope to set out today why I reject not only the motion but its premise. I start by repeating the First Minister’s acknowledgement last week that, in hindsi...
Alex Cole-Hamilton (Edinburgh Western) (LD)
LD
I keep hearing the Government use the excuse that it interpreted the requirements of the UK Covid inquiry too narrowly. I do not understand that. Many of us ...
Shona Robison
SNP
Let me go into some of the detail on that in response to Alex Cole-Hamilton. In my statement of 31 October, and in answers to questions, I acknowledged that ...
Daniel Johnson
Lab
I struggle to understand why the Government misinterpreted the request and interpreted it so narrowly. The point of an inquiry is surely to understand why de...
Shona Robison
SNP
The focus was on decision making and providing the record of decision making. The subsequent request from the inquiry was for the broader range of context th...
Douglas Ross
Con
Can Shona Robison confirm when she, as a current member of the Government and a member of the previous Government, was made aware of the request in February ...
Shona Robison
SNP
When I was making the preparations for the statement, the advice to me was very clear that the Scottish Government’s interpretation of those early requests w...
Meghan Gallacher (Central Scotland) (Con)
Con
Will the member give way?
Shona Robison
SNP
Briefly.
Meghan Gallacher
Con
How can the Government be fully transparent if WhatsApp messages were manually deleted by key players during the Covid-19 inquiry?
The Deputy Presiding Officer
LD
I can give you the time back, Deputy First Minister.
Shona Robison
SNP
I dealt in my statement, at length, with the record management policy of the Government, which is that decision making, whether on WhatsApp or anything else,...
Martin Whitfield
Lab
Will the member give way on that point?
Shona Robison
SNP
I do not have time. I am sorry; I need to make progress. Further to my previous statement, and in line with a request from the UK inquiry, I provided the Pa...
Oliver Mundell (Dumfriesshire) (Con)
Con
Will the member take an intervention on that point?
Shona Robison
SNP
I do not have time. In relation to messages that have been collated by the Scottish Government, we sought and received from the UK inquiry a section 21 noti...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
LD
I can give you a bit more time, Deputy First Minister.
Shona Robison
SNP
Thank you. I want to highlight the information that I provided in my 31 October statement to the chamber regarding the handling and retention of records, in...
Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab)
Lab
Will the Deputy First Minister take a brief intervention on that point?
The Deputy Presiding Officer
LD
The Deputy First Minister is just concluding.
Shona Robison
SNP
I am sure that the Minister for Parliamentary Business will be able to address Ms Baillie’s point in his closing speech. I underline our commitment to do al...