Tuesday, May 07, 2024
Did Gething mislead the Covid inquiry?
Nation Cymru says that they have evidence that Vaughan Gething misled the UK Covid Inquiry and the Senedd by concealing the fact that he deliberately deleted records of conversations he had with other ministers:
As a witness to the Inquiry, the First Minister insisted that messages had been deleted from his mobile phone not by him, but when it was serviced by the Senedd’s IT department.
But a previously undisclosed message that has been leaked to Nation.Cymru proves that he admitted deleting conversations he had with ministerial colleagues on a group chat.
In a text message posted to the ministerial group chat on Monday August 17 2020, when he was Health Minister, Mr Gething wrote: “I’m deleting the messages in this group. They can be captured in an FOI [Freedom of Information request] and I think we are all in the right place on the choice being made.”
The message was written at a time when Wales was still subject to Covid restrictions following the first lockdown, and when ministers were making decisions about the level of interaction between people that should be permitted.
On August 17 – the date of Mr Gething’s message – the Welsh Government announced that A-level and GCSE students would be awarded the grades estimated for them by their teachers. There had been uproar the previous week after 42% of grades were lower than teacher assessments, having been processed by an algorithm.
His admission that he deleted messages contradicts evidence that he gave to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, when he asserted that messages had been deleted during a “security rebuild” of his mobile phone carried out in 2022 by the Senedd’s IT team.
It appears that, contrary to other evidence Mr Gething gave to the Inquiry, decisions about dealing with the pandemic were discussed by him and other ministers in the group chat.
Mr Gething provided a lengthy written “statement of truth” to the Inquiry dated January 3 2024. It runs to 147 pages, at the end of which is a signed declaration by him which states: “I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true. I understand that proceedings may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief of its truth. “
Vaughan Gething’s text message posted to the ministerial group chat on Monday August 17 2020 On March 11 he gave oral evidence to the Inquiry when it was sitting in Cardiff. Immediately before doing so, he made this declaration: “I do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
Telling lies at a statutory public inquiry, such as the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, amounts to the criminal offence of perjury, which on conviction can lead to a prison sentence of up to seven years.
Other laws may also have been broken. The Inquiries Act 2005, which sets out the legal responsibilities of witnesses to statutory public inquiries, states that all relevant material must be provided to an inquiry, while the Freedom of Information Act has penalties for those who destroy material that would be subject to disclosure.
In his written statement, Mr Gething said that although he would sometimes discuss matters by phone, text, WhatsApp or Microsoft Teams, these informal means of communication were not used to make decisions.
He stated that during the period of the pandemic, he had four mobile phones – two from the Welsh Government and two from the Senedd.
It is unclear whether Mr Gething used a Welsh Government phone or a Senedd phone to participate in the ministerial group chat in which he posted the incriminating message. It is also unclear how many, if any, of these group chat messages were passed to the UK Covid Inquiry, as they should have been.
It's time the First Minister came clean on what exactly he did and did not do with this data.
Update: walesonline reports on exchanges in the Senedd in which Welsh First Minister Vaughan Gething has denied he lied to the Covid inquiry and called an accusation he had committed perjury during his evidence "obnoxious".
He told MSs: "The conversation is entirely about a Labour party group meeting, and not about decision-making to do with the pandemic, but it's about comments colleagues made to and about each other. It's about ensuring we don't provide things that are potentially embarrassing but not those things that affect any information about decision-making in the pandemic."
As a witness to the Inquiry, the First Minister insisted that messages had been deleted from his mobile phone not by him, but when it was serviced by the Senedd’s IT department.
But a previously undisclosed message that has been leaked to Nation.Cymru proves that he admitted deleting conversations he had with ministerial colleagues on a group chat.
In a text message posted to the ministerial group chat on Monday August 17 2020, when he was Health Minister, Mr Gething wrote: “I’m deleting the messages in this group. They can be captured in an FOI [Freedom of Information request] and I think we are all in the right place on the choice being made.”
The message was written at a time when Wales was still subject to Covid restrictions following the first lockdown, and when ministers were making decisions about the level of interaction between people that should be permitted.
On August 17 – the date of Mr Gething’s message – the Welsh Government announced that A-level and GCSE students would be awarded the grades estimated for them by their teachers. There had been uproar the previous week after 42% of grades were lower than teacher assessments, having been processed by an algorithm.
His admission that he deleted messages contradicts evidence that he gave to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, when he asserted that messages had been deleted during a “security rebuild” of his mobile phone carried out in 2022 by the Senedd’s IT team.
It appears that, contrary to other evidence Mr Gething gave to the Inquiry, decisions about dealing with the pandemic were discussed by him and other ministers in the group chat.
Mr Gething provided a lengthy written “statement of truth” to the Inquiry dated January 3 2024. It runs to 147 pages, at the end of which is a signed declaration by him which states: “I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true. I understand that proceedings may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief of its truth. “
Vaughan Gething’s text message posted to the ministerial group chat on Monday August 17 2020 On March 11 he gave oral evidence to the Inquiry when it was sitting in Cardiff. Immediately before doing so, he made this declaration: “I do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
Telling lies at a statutory public inquiry, such as the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, amounts to the criminal offence of perjury, which on conviction can lead to a prison sentence of up to seven years.
Other laws may also have been broken. The Inquiries Act 2005, which sets out the legal responsibilities of witnesses to statutory public inquiries, states that all relevant material must be provided to an inquiry, while the Freedom of Information Act has penalties for those who destroy material that would be subject to disclosure.
In his written statement, Mr Gething said that although he would sometimes discuss matters by phone, text, WhatsApp or Microsoft Teams, these informal means of communication were not used to make decisions.
He stated that during the period of the pandemic, he had four mobile phones – two from the Welsh Government and two from the Senedd.
It is unclear whether Mr Gething used a Welsh Government phone or a Senedd phone to participate in the ministerial group chat in which he posted the incriminating message. It is also unclear how many, if any, of these group chat messages were passed to the UK Covid Inquiry, as they should have been.
It's time the First Minister came clean on what exactly he did and did not do with this data.
Update: walesonline reports on exchanges in the Senedd in which Welsh First Minister Vaughan Gething has denied he lied to the Covid inquiry and called an accusation he had committed perjury during his evidence "obnoxious".
He told MSs: "The conversation is entirely about a Labour party group meeting, and not about decision-making to do with the pandemic, but it's about comments colleagues made to and about each other. It's about ensuring we don't provide things that are potentially embarrassing but not those things that affect any information about decision-making in the pandemic."
