The English High Court’s judgment in favour of the UK Covid-19 inquiry over the disclosure of WhatsApp messages has been welcomed by Aamer Anwar, lead solicitor acting on behalf of the The Scottish Covid Bereaved at both the Scottish & UK inquiries. The decision relates to the disclosure of relevant documents to the UK inquiry, in particular the disclosure of WhatsApp messages, that had been sought for all Scottish ministers as well as Boris Johnson and others. In a statement, Mr Anwar said: “Despite an unequivocal request by Baroness Hallett, using her statutory power under Section 21 of the 2005 Act, for unredacted copies of a range of documents, consisting of WhatsApp messages, diaries and notebooks, that she considered to be potentially relevant, Cabinet Office took the view that it was permitted to redact what it judged to be ‘unambiguously irrelevant material’ before they were provided to the inquiry. “This request for the above materials by the inquiry followed our submissions to the UK Covid-19 Public inquiry Preliminary Hearing on the 1st March 2023 when we appeared for the ‘Scottish Covid Bereaved’. On the 28th February it was revealed that 100,000 WhatsApp messages of the former Health Secretary Matt Hancock
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Covid inquiry: disclosure of WhatsApp messages welcomed by Anwar | Scottish Legal News
