The Scottish government has announced it will ban the use of ‘non-corporate’ messaging apps such as WhatsApp on official devices used by civil servants and government ministers. The ban will come into effect from next spring.

A government press release on Tuesday December 17 said: “Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes welcomed the review of mobile messaging apps and non-corporate technology and confirmed that access to these apps will be removed from government devices in spring 2025. Updated guidance and training for staff and Ministers will take place ahead of the new policy being implemented.”

In January this year, the government commissioned a review into the use of official messaging apps installed on official devices used by civil servants and ministers.

It was led by former Channel Islands data protection commissioner Emma Martins, and was “part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to improving openness and transparency.”

Forbes told Parliament: “Government business should happen on government systems which are secure, searchable and allow the appropriate sharing of information, in line with our statutory duties.”

Delete or retain?

The decision comes in the aftermath of the official COVID-19 inquiry, which led to accusations of mishandling by government officials of data which was deemed important in the context of the inquiry.

A number of high ranking Scottish government officials, including current and former First Ministers, have been accused of having deleted WhatsApp messages from their official devices during the COVID pandemic, according to the FT.

Scottish Conservatives have accused Scottish National Party ministers of “hampering the Covid inquiry’s scrutiny of government decision-making” by their “industrial-scale” deletion of relevant data, the FT report adds.

The use of WhatsApp and other ‘off-channel’ messaging apps on official devices has recently raised concerns around data safety and privacy at government and corporate level in the UK.

Last month, the head of the UK’s data watchdog raised the prospect of spot checks on NHS staff to make sure they are using WhatsApp safely and are not compromising patients’ data safety.

Also last month, NatWest, one of the UK’s biggest high street banks, banned staff from using WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Skype on work devices.

Data experts, including those working for the NHS, have repeatedly warned about the risks to data safety, both from internal as well as external sources, from the use of off-channel messaging apps.