Inquiry to examine how Scottish ministers use WhatsApp
- Published
First Minister Humza Yousaf commissioned the new inquiry
The Scottish government has announced details of a review into the use of WhatsApp and other messaging apps.
It will consider whether ministers and officials should use WhatsApp to conduct government business.
The UK Covid inquiry revealed officials and ministers had deleted WhatsApp messages exchanged during the pandemic.
The external review, commissioned by First Minister Humza Yousaf, will also look at whether personal devices ought to be used for government business.
It will be led by former Channel Islands data protection commissioner Emma Martins.
The Covid inquiry heard that a number of Scottish government figures, including the then first finister Nicola Sturgeon, had deleted messages that referred to government business.
The Scottish government was accused of "industrial scale" deletion of messages by opposition parties, but Ms Sturgeon said any "salient" points were recorded on the corporate record and it was informal messages that were deleted.
The UK government was also criticised over its record-keeping, with Scottish Secretary Alister Jack telling the inquiry he had deleted all of his messages to create memory space on his phone.
'Committed to openness'
The external review will also consider how information from messaging apps should be retained and whether the Ministerial Code and Scottish Civil Service Guidance need to be updated.
The current Scottish government guidance states that relevant information from mobile messaging apps should be saved centrally and messages should be deleted at least monthly.
Minister for Parliamentary Business George Adam said: "We are committed to openness and transparency and constantly seek to maintain and improve our performance in this area which is why the first minister commissioned this important external review."
Emma Martins has been appointed to lead the inquiry on an initial three month contact.