Connect with us

Published

on

Kate Forbes did not delete any of her WhatsApp messages with senior Holyrood ministers and officials until January 2022 when all major COVID decisions had been made, an inquiry heard.

Scotland’s former finance secretary told the UK COVID-19 Inquiry that a junior member of her private office advised her it was Scottish government policy from January 2022 for all messages within the office to be deleted going forward, and she “acquiesced” because she believed it was an instruction.

She said she did not recall the policy applying to anybody else in and around the cabinet or government.

Ms Forbes, SNP MSP for Skye, Badenoch and Lochaber, said she provided her messages to the inquiry “in the spirit of being completely open”.

Use and retention of WhatsApp messages by senior Holyrood ministers and officials has proved contentious, with First Minister Humza Yousaf making an “unreserved” apology for the Scottish government’s “frankly poor” handling of requests from the inquiry for WhatsApp messages to be handed over.

Apologising while giving evidence to the inquiry last week, he said he accepted this would have caused “serious grief and re-trauma” for those who lost loved ones during the pandemic.

The inquiry has already heard how former first minister Nicola Sturgeon and her deputy John Swinney failed to retain their WhatsApp messages, although Ms Sturgeon later said correspondence had been handed over after being saved by recipients.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Sturgeon called Johnson a ‘clown’

Professor Sir Gregor Smith, Scotland’s chief medical officer, told colleagues to delete WhatsApp messages “at the end of every day”, while national clinical director Professor Jason Leitch described the daily deletion of messages a “pre-bed ritual”.

Questioned further on Tuesday about record retention, Ms Forbes said she was “surprised” to learn that meetings of the Scottish government Resilience Room (SGoRR) and “gold command” group had not been minuted.

She said: “That surprises me, and this would be the first of me hearing it.”

Read more:
Freeman says she ‘will regret care home deaths for rest of her life’
Sturgeon branded Johnson a ‘clown’ in foul-mouthed messages

Yousaf admits ‘winging it’ as Scotland’s health secretary

Jamie Dawson KC, counsel to the inquiry, said: “The reason we think that is the case is we have obviously asked the Scottish government for all of its papers concerning these matters and although we have cabinet minutes, we don’t have minuted records of either of those groups.

“It becomes difficult to understand what the ultimate decision-making process was when there is no record of how those decisions were taken.”

Ms Forbes responded: “I can understand that frustration.”

Ms Forbes said she was unaware of the gold command group’s existence until she was invited in 2021.

Inquiry chair Lady Hallett asked Ms Forbes: “Given your seniority in the Scottish government, why weren’t you at the command meetings in 2020?”

Ms Forbes said: “I wasn’t aware. I am not even sure I was aware they existed.”

Lady Hallett said: “You would have expected to be invited, wouldn’t you?”

Ms Forbes replied: “I would have expected to be invited to any meeting where there were significant financial implications.”

She also told the inquiry she could not recall being aware of epidemiological evidence about coronavirus available to the Scottish government when she became finance secretary in February 2020.

The MSP also said she could not recall anything relating to COVID being in the budget she presented to parliament on 6 February 2020, that had been prepared by her predecessor Derek Mackay.

The inquiry, which is currently sitting in Edinburgh, continues.

Continue Reading

Politics

5 countries where crypto is (surprisingly) tax-free in 2025

Published

on

By

5 countries where crypto is (surprisingly) tax-free in 2025

5 countries where crypto is (surprisingly) tax-free in 2025

Looking to live tax-free with crypto in 2025? These five countries, including the Cayman Islands, UAE and Germany, still offer legal, zero-tax treatment for cryptocurrencies.

Continue Reading

Politics

Children with special needs will ‘always’ have ‘legal right’ to support, education secretary says

Published

on

By

Children with special needs will 'always' have 'legal right' to support, education secretary says

The education secretary has said children with special needs will “always” have a legal right to additional support as she sought to quell a looming row over potential cuts.

The government is facing a potential repeat of the debacle over welfare reform due to suggestions it could scrap tailored plans for children and young people with special needs in the classroom.

Politics latest: Minister says ‘those with broadest shoulders should pay more tax’

Speaking in the Commons on Monday, Bridget Phillipson failed to rule out abolishing education, health and care plans (EHCPs) – legally-binding plans to ensure children and young people receive bespoke support in either mainstream or specialist schools.

Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, said parents’ anxiety was “through the roof” following reports over the weekend that EHCPs could be scrapped.

She said parents “need and deserve answers” and asked: “Can she confirm that no parent or child will have their right to support reduced, replaced or removed as a result of her planned changes?”

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Sophy’s thought on whether to scrap EHCPs

Ms Phillipson said SEND provision was a “serious and complex area” and that the government’s plans would be set out in a white paper that would be published later in the year.

More on Education

“I would say to all parents of children with SEND, there is no responsibility I take more seriously than our responsibility to some of the most vulnerable children in our country,” she said.

“We will ensure, as a government, that children get better access to more support, strengthened support, with a much sharper focus on early intervention.”

ECHPs are drawn up by local councils and are available to children and young people aged up to 25 who need more support than is provided by the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) budget.

They identify educational, health and social needs and set out the additional support to meet those needs.

In total, there were 638,745 EHCPs in place in January 2025 – up 10.8% on the same point last year.

‘Rebel ready’

One Labour MP said they were concerned the government risked making the “same mistakes” over ECHPs as it did with the row over welfare, when it was eventually forced into a humiliating climbdown in the face of opposition by Labour MPs.

“The political risk is much higher even than with welfare, and I’m worried it’s being driven by a need to save money which it shouldn’t be,” they told Sky News.

“Some colleagues are rebel ready.”

The MP said the government should be “charting a transition from where we are now to where we need to be”, adding: “That may well be a future without ECHPs, because there is mainstream capacity – but that cannot be a removal of current provision.”

Later in the debate, Ms Phillipson said children with special educational needs and disabilities would “always” have a “legal right” to additional support as she accused a Conservative MP of attempting to “scare” parents.

“The guiding principle of any reform to the SEND system that we will set out will be about better support for children, strengthened support for children and improved support for children, both inside and outside of special schools,” she said.

Read more:
Government to ban ‘appalling’ non-disclosure agreements
Government declines to rule out wealth tax

“Improved inclusivity in mainstream schools, more specialist provision in mainstream schools, and absolutely drawing on the expertise of the specialist sector in creating the places where we need them, there will always be a legal right … to the additional support… that children with SEND need.”

Her words were echoed by schools minister Catherine McKinnell, who also did not rule out changing ECHPs.

She told the Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge that the government was “focused on reforming the whole system”.

“Children and families have been left in a system where they’ve had to fight for their child’s education, and that has to change,” she said.

She added that EHCPs have not necessarily “fixed the situation” for some children – but for others it’s “really important”.

Continue Reading

Politics

Government to ban ‘appalling’ non-disclosure agreements that silence victims of abuse at work

Published

on

By

Government to ban 'appalling' non-disclosure agreements that silence victims of abuse at work

Victims will no longer have to “suffer in silence”, the government has said, as it pledges to ban non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) designed to silence staff who’ve suffered harassment or discrimination.

Accusers of Harvey Weinstein, the former film producer and convicted sex offender, are among many in recent years who had to breach such agreements in order to speak out.

Labour has suggested an extra section in the Employment Rights Bill that would void NDAs that are intended to stop employees going public about harassment or discrimination.

The government said this would allow victims to come forward about their situation rather than remain “stuck in unwanted situations, through fear or desperation”.

Zelda Perkins, former assistant to Harvey Weinstein, led the calls for wrongful NDAs to be banned. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Zelda Perkins, former assistant to Harvey Weinstein, led the calls for wrongful NDAs to be banned. Pic: Reuters

Zelda Perkins, Weinstein’s former assistant and founder of Can’t Buy My Silence UK, said the changes would mark a “huge milestone” in combatting the “abuse of power”.

She added: “This victory belongs to the people who broke their NDAs, who risked everything to speak the truth when they were told they couldn’t. Without their courage, none of this would be happening.”

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner said the government had “heard the calls from victims of harassment and discrimination” and was taking action to prevent people from having to “suffer in silence”.

More from UK

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Weinstein found guilty of sex crime in retrial

An NDA is a broad term that describes any agreement that restricts what a signatory can say about something and was originally intended to protect commercially sensitive information.

Currently, a business can take an employee to court and seek compensation if they think a NDA has been broken – even if that person is a victim or witness of harassment or discrimination.

“Many high profile cases” have revealed NDAs are being manipulated to prevent people “speaking out about horrific experiences in the workplace”, the government said.

Announcing the amendments, employment minister Justin Madders said: “The misuse of NDAs to silence victims of harassment or discrimination is an appalling practice that this government has been determined to end.”

The bill is currently in the House of Lords, where it will be debated on 14 July, before going on to be discussed by MPs as well.

Continue Reading

Trending