Scotland’s national clinical director to face Covid inquiry amid WhatsApp storm

One of Scotland’s most senior clinicians will appear before the UK Covid-19 Inquiry amid a storm over WhatsApp messages.

National clinical director Professor Jason Leitch will give evidence on Tuesday, with the retention of informal messaging likely to be high on the agenda.

Last week, a message from Prof Leitch was shown to the inquiry in which he said deleting WhatsApp messages was a “bed time ritual”.

The statement followed reports last year that senior Scottish Government officials deleted messages relating to the pandemic regularly and could not hand them to the inquiry.

Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon and her deputy John Swinney were also revealed not to have retained messages, although Ms Sturgeon said in a statement at the weekend correspondence had been given to the inquiry after being saved by recipients.

On Monday, the issue was raised with Scotland’s chief medical officer Professor Sir Gregor Smith, with a message showing him instructing colleagues to “delete at the end of every day”.

Sir Gregor told the inquiry Scottish Government advice was “not to retain information for longer than it was necessary”, adding that information he deemed to be pertinent would not be recorded “verbatim” on Government systems, but the “essence” would.

Opposition politicians have accused officials of secrecy over the issue, with the Scottish Tories calling for Ms Sturgeon and Mr Swinney to make a statement in parliament.

Prof Leitch shot to prominence during the pandemic, appearing at Scottish Government briefings alongside the then first minister on a near-daily basis as well as fronting public information campaigns on TV, radio and online.

The inquiry has moved to Edinburgh as it probes the devolved administration’s response to the pandemic.