2023-05-31 00:02:02
LONDON (AP) — When he was prime minister, Boris Johnson set up an independent public inquiry into his government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now in the investigation it is intended to know, in its entirety, what Johnson wrote to other British officials when the coronavirus spread, but the government disputes the requirement to deliver the materials.
The chair of the inquiry, retired judge Heather Hallett, has asked the Conservative government, now headed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, to hand over copies of Johnson’s WhatsApp messages and notebooks, because she was initially given redacted versions.
Authorities said they only removed content “unequivocally irrelevant” to the investigation, but Hallett wants to be the judge of that. Hallett said that “all the contents of the specified documents are of possible relevance to the lines of investigation of the investigation.”
Hallett, who has the power to request evidence and question witnesses under oath, had set a deadline of Tuesday at 4 p.m. (1500 GMT) for the government to hand over documents for a period of two years from the beginning of 2020. .
But hours before the deadline, the government asked for more time, saying it did not have Johnson’s WhatsApp messages or notebooks. Hallett rejected a request to move the date to Monday, but agreed to extend the deadline by 48 hours.
The inquiry said that if the WhatsApp messages and notebooks cannot be delivered, the government must provide testimony from senior officials describing the efforts made to find those materials.
Sunak said the government had handed over tens of thousands of documents for the investigation and was “carefully considering the next steps.” The government is concerned about the precedent that could be set by the disclosure of Johnson’s full and uncensored conversations.
“It is our firm view that the inquiry lacks the power to request unequivocally irrelevant information that goes beyond the scope of this inquiry,” the Cabinet Office, a government department, said in a statement. “This includes WhatsApp messages that are unrelated to the work of government employees and that are totally personal or related to their private lives.”
Johnson’s office said the former prime minister “had no objection to material being disclosed for the investigation” but that the decision to censor content should be made by the Cabinet Office.
1685493407
#government #disputes #demand #deliver #Boris #Johnson #messages #COVID19