A LEGAL bid has been launched to stop Boris Johnson and his ministers from deleting communications that would show how they made decisions during the coronavirus pandemic.
A letter that has been drawn up by lawyers and seen by The Independent warns of concerns that ministers and government officials are conducting government business via communication services such as text message, WhatsApp and the encrypted messaging service, Signal.
If the legal action is successful, ministers would be forced to archive conversations they have via these digital communication platforms in line with their legal duty to make official business accessible to freedom of information requests.
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MPs supporting the action are worried that messages concerning crucial decisions during the height of the pandemic could be being deleted, making a future inquiry into government mistakes harder.
"Recent weeks have exposed more fatal errors by the government, including the delay adding India to the red list which allowed the Indian variant to take root in the UK," said Green MP Caroline Lucas (above) who is supporting the move for transparency.
"The inquiry must have full access to communications behind these decisions, including any relevant text messages between ministers and civil servants, to find out what lay behind them.
"Failure to do so would risk meaning vital evidence is missed and crucial lessons go unlearned."
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Martha Dark, director of legal group Foxglove, which is bringing the case for transparency, told The Independent that the Government did not have the proper arrangements in place and was in “clear breach of the law”.
“We are in an unprecedented national emergency. All records relating to government business, including WhatsApp messages, text messages, Signal messages must be kept for consideration under the Public Records Act. There are no arrangements currently in place to ensure that happens,” she said.
"The only hope we have of holding power to account or even simply maintaining the historical record is transparency."
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