Cole-Hamilton demands Sturgeon make personal statement in Parliament

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today written to former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, urging her to make a personal statement to the Scottish Parliament and face questions from MSPs after the UK Covid Inquiry was told that she had “retained no messages whatsoever” on WhatsApp relating to the pandemic.  

On Friday, Jamie Dawson QC, counsel to the UK Covid Inquiry also set out how her deputy, John Swinney, had set his WhatsApp messages to auto-delete.  

Nicola Sturgeon first committed to a public inquiry in May 2020. She made an explicit undertaking on national television on 24th August 2021 to retain all records from the pandemic and hand them over to any future inquiry.

On 29th July 2022, the UK Covid Inquiry issued protocol that refers to the Inquiries Act 2005, confirming it is an offence to destroy a document that may be of interest to an inquiry.  

The text of Mr Cole-Hamilton’s letter to Ms Sturgeon is as follows:  

Dear Nicola,  

I am writing to you following the revelations that emerged on Friday 19th January from the UK Covid Inquiry as it gathered evidence during a hearing in Edinburgh.  

Jamie Dawson KC, counsel to the inquiry, confirmed that you appear to have “retained no messages whatsoever” relating to the pandemic.

You gave assurances in May 2020 that a public inquiry would be held. It was accepted as being both inevitable and essential long before the UK Covid Inquiry was announced in May 2021, and long before you made an unambiguous commitment on national television in August 2021 to retain all records including WhatsApps and hand them over to an inquiry.

It now appears that, where some messages will be available, that is not as a result of your personally retaining them.

You will also be aware that the UK Inquiry issued protocol on 29th July 2022 referring to the Inquiries Act 2005, which states that it is an offence to destroy any document that may of interest to an inquiry.  

There are many questions that I believe you are required to address, including whether you have misled the bereaved families, the UK Covid inquiry and Parliament by committing to personally retain and hand over all relevant material. It is only right that you address these questions in a personal statement to the Scottish Parliament and face questions from MSPs in public.

Will you, therefore, commit to contacting the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament to request that you make such a personal statement in Parliament and that standing order 13.1.4 be suspended to allow for questions on the content of your statement? I hope that you will respect Parliament’s role in scrutinising you and the government you led during this crisis.

Lives and livelihoods hinged on the decisions that you and your government were taking. By erasing the discussions that underpinned such decisions, however, you and others at the top of your government may have denied families the answers, the understanding and the closure that they have so desperately sought to obtain. Those grieving families, those failed, may be forever denied the full story behind the calls you made.

Yours sincerely

Alex Cole-Hamilton  

MSP for Edinburgh Western