NICOLA Sturgeon has said she has “nothing to hide” following reports that WhatsApp messages relevant to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry may have been deleted from her phone.
Speaking to journalists in Holyrood, the former first minister said she was “committed to full transparency”.
“I gave my all to the management of the pandemic,” she said.
“Transparency for the families affected, by everybody affected by the pandemic, matters really a lot to me.
“I did my best everyday, as you heard me say many times over the course of the pandemic, I did not get everything right but I did my best and I want the process of these inquiries to get to the heart of what happened – the things that governments got right and the things that governments and leaders alike didn’t get right.”
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She added that she was not a member of any WhatsApp groups and took decisions related to the response to Covid-19 at Scottish Government headquarters at St Andrew’s House in Edinburgh.
“I did not manage the Covid response by WhatsApp.
“Any messages I had I handled and dealt with in line with the policies set out by the Deputy First Minister.”
Her comments come after the Scottish Government published its policy on social media messages, which says “business conversations” through informal messaging channels should be deleted “at least monthly”.
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