Welsh Covid-19 bereaved families: Calls for all WhatsApp messages between officials to be published
Families who lost loved ones during the pandemic have called for all the Whatsapp messages exchanged between Welsh Government ministers and officials to be published.
The lawyer representing the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru made the request on the UK Covid-19 Inquiry’s final day in Wales “so that the Welsh people can see what their government was using informal messaging for.”
Kirsten Heaven said: “The Welsh Government has repeatedly shirked a granular inspection of Welsh decision-making by refusing to open itself up to scrutiny in a Welsh-specific inquiry, seeking instead to blame the UK Government.
“It is also regrettable that this inquiry and indeed this module has been forced to spend so much time asking about missing evidence and destroyed Whatsapps.”
Over the past week, the inquiry has heard how the messages of the First Minister, Mark Drakeford, and the former Health Minister, Vaughan Gething, have been “lost”, unrecovered or deleted.
On Monday, Mr Gething told the inquiry that it was "a matter of real embarrassment".
On Thursday, seven representatives of core participants including bereaved families and vulnerable groups gave closing statements.
They reflected on what the inquiry’s time in Wales has so far revealed, and what they feel the inquiry should focus on going forward.
Ms Heaven added: “In all the other modules you’ve heard some reflection and some acceptance that mistakes were made and it is deeply worrying to the Welsh bereaved that their government seems incapable of doing the same.
“This ought to raise a real concern that lessons have not truly been learnt here in Wales.
“The Welsh Government's initial response can be summarised in three wordings: passive, slow and disjointed.”
The lawyer representing people with disabilities told the inquiry that Wales was “not resilient”, adding that “the system was vulnerable, not people”.
But Danny Friedman KC said Wales’ problem during the pandemic was that it was “too small, both in terms of the power it held and its capacity to do things differently.”
He added: “It was too small not to be taken for granted by Westminster. The result was Wales being informed about decisions rather than being consulted upon them on numerous occasions.
“Wales was also too small to escape being parochial and limited in what it could do locally to really change its outcomes.”
Mr Friedman also criticised two leading advisers to the Welsh Government, Chief Medical Officer Dr Frank Atherton and Chief Scientific Adviser Dr Rob Orford.
He said: “Sir Frank Atherton and Dr Orford did not have the difficult ministerial client that Professors Whitty and Vallance had, but it seems that they did not make clear the gravity of Covid-19 as early and as rigorously as they should have.”
On Wednesday, the First Minister told the inquiry that he “regrets everything that led to loss of life”.
But Mark Drakeford added that he was not at the inquiry to “justify”, but to “explain”.
"I don’t think the test for me is whether I got everything right, because I don’t think anybody could possibly pass such a test,” he said.
Andrew Kinnier KC, representing the Welsh Government, said on Thursday: “To have taken one reasonable course when an alternative reasonable option was also available does not make the course taken wrong or in some way flawed.
“Decisions had to be made, and they were made in good faith and with the best understanding possible at that time, whilst balancing the very real harms that the inquiry has examined over the last three weeks.”
Next week will see the inquiry return to London to hold the first preliminary hearing for its investigation into the care sector across the UK.
The inquiry, which is not expected to return to Wales, is set to conclude its hearings in 2026.
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