George Adam, the SNP freedom of information minister, admits he deleted his WhatsApp messages. Photo: SST/Alamy
Freedom of Information SNP A minister admitted his WhatsApp messages were automatically deleted every day, moments after he boasted about the «transparency» of the Scottish Government.
George Adam, Scottish parliamentary business minister, said there had been a «significant improvement» in the proportion of freedom of information (FOI) requests that were answered in a timely manner over the past two years.
Mr Adam said the SNP government «really believes in openness and transparency», despite evidence presented at the Covid inquiry showing some ministers and civil servants had deleted all their off-the-record communications related to the pandemic.
< p>But his boasts backfired after he was criticized for his own methods in an interview with BBC Radio Scotland conducted over a WhatsApp phone call.
The interviewer said: “When we were setting up this call, we had this notification pop up saying that George Adam was using the default timer for disappearing messages in new chats. New messages will disappear from this chat 24 hours after being sent.»
When asked why he automatically deleted his messages, the minister replied that he did not use WhatsApp for parliamentary business, but admitted that he used it to communicate with his personal account. He said all relevant points in the posts would be put on the Scottish Government's official record before they were deleted.
It was the same defense used by Nicola Sturgeon, the former first minister, when she tried to exonerate request to delete all her WhatsApp messages dating back to the pandemic.
Mr Adam said: “Essentially, I don't use WhatsApp for business, parliamentary business in any form. I use WhatsApp for information, for example, my personal office will contact me and say: “You're late for a meeting, George”, “You have a meeting in five minutes” and something like that.
“But any information in that chat will be saved and placed on the Scottish Government system.»
Mr Adam's intervention comes after the Scottish Information Commissioner announced at the weekend that he was launching an investigation into the mass deletion of WhatsApp messages in Scotland government.
Craig Hoy, the Scottish Tory chairman, said: «It was both shameful and revealing that the SNP government's information minister was forced to admit that he, too, automatically deletes his WhatsApp messages.
» At the same time, he insisted, apparently with a straight face that his party and Government are committed to openness and transparency.
“Like Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney, he argued that social media is never used for decision-making purposes — which the Covid inquiry found to be simply false.»
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Mr Adam insisted WhatsApp was not used «as a decision-making process» despite reports presented to the inquiry showing Ms Sturgeon used the platform to discuss lockdown rules during the pandemic.
He said he was «quite happy» to discuss Mr Hamilton's proposals with him and noted that Humza Yousaf had ordered conduct an external review of the use of unofficial communications in the light of the evidence heard during the investigation.
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