When will the government get to grips with WhatsApp? – Mark Pack

The latest edition of my email newsletter about work in Parliament, A Lord’s Eye View, is out and you can also read it in full below. But if you’d like to get future editions emailed direct to you as soon as they are published, sign up now: The use of WhatsApp for decision-making at senior levels of government is in the news again, due to concerns that this means we do not get a proper audit trail of who decided what and when. The government had previously promised to update its guidance on the use of WhatsApp but the promised deadline was missed. So the latest news was a good reason to return to that topic in Parliament. Read on to find out what happened. The government missed its WhatsApp deadline Lord Beamish, chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has been in the news raising concerns about the government’s use of WhatsApp: He said it was “extraordinary to see how much government business appears to be being conducted over unofficial systems”. “Lengthy WhatsApp conversations between senior officials and ministers appear now to be the format by which government policy is formulated.” He said the committee had raised the
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