Rennie writes to Information Commissioner over “government by WhatsApp”

Scottish Liberal Democrat Willie Rennie MSP has written to the Scottish Information Commissioner Darren Fitzhenry to call for an investigation into Scottish Government use of channels such as WhatsApp and whether ministers and advisers are using such services to bypass Freedom of Information legislation.

His calls come as analysis of Scottish Government freedom of information releases reveals that discussions of government business among ministers and civil servants on the popular messaging application appear to have only been disclosed on two occasions: a single message between two civil servants and conversations in which a minister discusses briefings and diaries and requests staff bring her gnocchi.

One-to-one text conversations on Microsoft Teams, the main business communications platform used by the Scottish Government, are only retained for seven days.  

Mr Rennie said:

“The idea that the sum total of government business on WhatsApp is one message exchange between civil servants and a chain which includes a minister’s lunch order will come as a surprise to people.

“Speaking with colleagues and journalists who are experienced at using freedom of information legislation to uncover matters of considerable public interest, none of them can ever recall seeing WhatsApp messages between ministers, special advisers or officials released to the public. The government has even admitted that special advisers are in WhatsApp channels relating to their portfolios yet this information hasn’t appeared in the public domain for scrutiny.

“It’s important that practices relating to the retention and release of data are sufficiently robust to capture discussions taking place on channels like WhatsApp.

“This is especially significant because the likes of the Covid Public Inquiry need to get the fullest picture and have access to all the relevant information.

“I have written to the Information Commissioner about examining the Scottish Government’s use of channels of communication such as WhatsApp and the processes that are in place for ensuring that these messages are recorded and captured in freedom of information requests.

“A more proactive publication regime would undoubtedly help by putting more of this information into the public domain as a matter of course but given the Scottish Government’s record on issues of transparency I will not be holding my breath.”