Widespread use of WhatsApp by ministers and parliamentary officials in Whitehall poses risks to transparency, the information commissioner said.
Writing in the Telegraph, John Edwards said there was nothing necessarily wrong with the use of WhatsApp, but that the manner of communication raised questions for current policies and procedures.
Edwards said: “Simply put, how are we going to learn from the pandemic experience if we can’t remember it?”
He added: “When the stakes are so high, we cannot trust people’s memories. We can’t rely on chunks of WhatsApp messages stored on a person’s phone.”
His warning follows the publication by the Telegraph of a series of articles, based on a leak of thousands of WhatsApp messages from former health secretary Matt Hancock, about the handling of the Covid pandemic.
The leak came from Isabel Oakeshott, a journalist who had signed a confidentiality agreement on the messages and had access to them because she co-wrote a book with Hancock based on their experiences as health secretary after the virus outbreak.
The disclosures have included details of how Hancock collided with then education secretary Gavin Williamson about school closures and how he tried to save his career after footage surfaced of him hugging an assistant, Gina Coladangelo.
Oakeshott has defended his actions, saying the leaking of the material was in the public interest. “The biggest betrayal is from the entire country,” he said in a statement in response to Hancock’s accusation that he had betrayed his trust.
Oakeshott added: “As hard as you may believe it, this is not about Matt Hancock or any other politician in particular. It’s not about me either.
Edwards, who became head of the information rights body last year, said the Telegraph reports “expose how WhatsApp messages were used to discuss and decide key government issues during the pandemic.”
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He added: “It also underscores the importance of keeping a public record of these private transcripts for transparency, accountability, and future lesson learning.
“It is not about preventing the use of WhatsApp. New technologies bring new opportunities and these can play a crucial role in keeping us connected.
“But the risk is that decision-making via WhatsApp risks being lost from the public record if it is not properly recorded and stored.”
Although WhatsApp messages are covered by freedom of information laws, Edwards said, in reality, “much of this information sits on people’s personal phones or in personal accounts, and is rarely properly documented and archived.” “.
“So the problem is not that ministers are using WhatsApp, but that the policies and procedures in place in Whitehall no longer reflect how ministers and officials work and interact in practice.”
