Head of Infections Service and Strategic Incident Director at Public Health Scotland WhatsApp messages during Covid: FOI release

Information requested

The WhatsApp messages of Professor Jim McMenamin during the Covid-19 pandemic, which for practical purposes we have interpreted as the period from 21 January 2020, the date on which the WHO published its ‘Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Situation Report’, to 30 April 2022, the date on which remaining Covid-19 restrictions were lifted in Scotland.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you have requested.

The Scottish Government holds a copy of a WhatsApp conversation between Professor McMenamin, the Chief Medical Officer, the National Clinical Director and other Scottish Government or Public Health Scotland colleagues. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions under sections 30(b)(ii), 37(1)(b)(ii) and 38(b)(i) of FOISA apply to that information. Further explanation of these exemptions is provided in the annex.

I should note that the copies of these messages held by the Scottish Government comprise text only and do not include other media such as images.

The Scottish Government also holds a copy of a conversation between Professor McMenamin and SG colleagues present at the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). We are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions under sections 30(b)(ii) and 38(b)(i) of FOISA apply. In relation to the s.30(b)(ii) exemption here, I would note in particular that it is necessary for senior clinical advisers to have private space in which to discuss the implications of UKwide scientific meetings freely and frankly. Disclosure of these private deliberations would substantially inhibit their ability to explore options in a provisional way prior to offering formal advice. An exemption under section 30(b)(ii) therefore applies to some parts of this discussion, mainly relating to SAGE meetings held on 16 December 2021, 7 January 2022 and 10 February 2022. However, SAGE minutes for all three days have been published, so you will be able to access the public record of the meetings themselves and find formal accounts of the matters being discussed using the dated hyperlinks provided above, which I hope will be helpful.

The Scottish Government holds an additional discussion between Professor McMenamin, the National Clinical Director, Professor Jason Leitch, and the CMO, Professor Sir Gregor Smith, part of which has been published by the UKI, plus an individual chat with the CMO. Please note that this material was provided to SG by the UK Covid-19 Inquiry and is all subject to the UKI’s general restriction order of 23 February 2024. We are unable to provide this information because an exemption under section 37(1)(b) (ii) of FOISA applies to documents created by a person conducting an inquiry or arbitration for the purposes of that inquiry or arbitration. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the publicinterest in applying the exemption.

In relation to the published extracts of the group conversations, under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. However, if you are unable to obtain this information from the UKI website, please let us know and we can arrange to supply it in a different format.

As Professor McMenamin is employed by Public Health Scotland, you may wish to make a request to PHS in case they hold additional material of relevance if you have not already done so. Contact details and guidance on making an FOI request from PHS can be found at Freedom of Information (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulation (EIR) requests - Contact us - Public Health Scotland.

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The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202400425747 - Information Released - Annex

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