BUNCH OF DOPES
Scotland’s chief medic joked about drugs & told staff to wipe WhatsApp messages ‘every day’ during Covid
A transcript shows the 'banter' on the official Scottish Government WhatsApp group
SCOTLAND's top medic joked about cannabis with senior pandemic officials in a Government WhatsApp group, it emerged yesterday.
Professor Sir Gregor Smith also told colleagues to wipe their messages "at the end of every day" the UK Covid Inquiry was told.
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Taking to the stand at today’s hearing, Sir Gregor - knighted for his service during Covid - admitted routinely wiping messages, days after it was confirmed Nicola Sturgeon had done similarly.
An extract from a WhatsApp group of top health officials, from July 2021 - two months after the UK inquiry had been called - showed Chief Pharmaceutical Officer Alison Strath tell colleagues with a humorous emoji that one of the topics she was working on was “wait for it … cannabis”.
Health official Graham Ellis - now Deputy CMO - responded jokingly: “Yes please”. And amid further banter he added: “That’s why I have my own supply.”
Mr Ellis then said “Hope this isn’t FOI able?” - a reference to the chat being discoverable under freedom of information laws.
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And Prof Smith then chipped in with the advice: “Delete at the end of every day….”
The extracts were flashed up on screen and lead counsel to the inquiry, Jamie Dawson KC, asked Prof Smith if it was his practice to delete messages at the end of every day.
Echoing the reasoning given by Ms Sturgeon for her deletions, Dr Smith said he was following guidance issued by the Scottish Government’s internal HR system, Saltire, when he deleted messages.
The guidance - published internally on April 17, 2020 - states WhatsApp messages “should be deleted as soon as they are no longer needed”.
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Pressed on whether he deleted them every day, he added: “If not at the end of every day then certainly on a frequent basis I deleted information which was no longer needed to be kept.”
The Chief Medical Officer added that only information which was “definitive” or was a “consensus” was passed on to be recorded formally.
He added: “Any important decisions that were taken - it wouldn’t be a verbatim account of a conversation, but it would be the essence of any decision or any approach which should be taken on any information that had been given.”
Messages discussing how officials and ministers reached such a “consensus” would therefore be deleted regularly.
The latest details emerged amid fury about Ms Sturgeon’s wholesale deletion of her own messages from during the pandemic - despite her public assurance that she’d hand them over to inquiry chiefs.
On Friday, damning screenshots flashed up at the UK inquiry revealed top Scottish Government pandemic official Professor Jason Leitch boasted his "pre-bed ritual" during the pandemic was to wipe his mobile messages.
Ms Sturgeon said as early as May 2020 that there would be public inquiries into the Covid crisis. Covid bereaved lawyers argue all messages should have been kept from then.
The UK-wide judge-led inquiry into the handling of the pandemic was announced on May 12, 2021. The Scottish Government confirmed a Scotland-only inquiry on December 14, 2021.