Covid Inquiry UK LIVE: Alister Jack to give evidence after Nicola Sturgeon grilled on WhatsApp use
Don't miss a moment from today's UK Covid-19 Inquiry.
Follow along with our live blog, bringing you all updates and analysis.
"I suspect people might be more interested in the effectiveness of the communication, rather than the communication itself"
Jamie Dawson KC is very good.
Mr Jack: "The idea that there wasn't any communication or help from the UK Government is wrong"
Right before we move on to the Eat Out to Help Out scheme..
"I don't recall telling anyone about it, no"
Both Ms Sturgeon and Ms Forbes both said they did not hear about Eat Out to Help Out.
Mr Jack says that it was a Treasury initiative.
Mr Jack is now saying that the Scottish Government could have pushed back on Eat Out to Help Out if they'd wanted to.
He "has no recollection at the time" of Scot Gov saying it was a bad idea.
The Barnett formula
We're now in the middle of in depth chats about the distribution of funding across the UK.
Scot Gov has raised problems with the Barnett Formula, particularly during an emergency.
Mr Jack, again perhaps unsurprisingly, doesn't agree.
The point has been raised that Scot Gov couldn't choose their own lock down because of the lack of control over the furlough scheme.
Mr Jack has said that furlough lasted longer than intended and was "proportionate".
"Can I finish my question please"
A rather tense interruption from Mr Jack, as we continue the discussions around furlough, although he has now apologised.
"A bit of a manufactured grievance by the Scottish Government"
"We were never going to say, you're in lock down and we're cancelling furlough"..
Quite rightly, he's now been asked why he didn't just tell them that.
He responds that it was because they were discussing different options.
"I don't understand that position"
Mr Jack is refuting claims from the Welsh Government that furlough wasn't available to devolved governments.
He now says that furlough would be made available to devolved governments should they want it.
Whatever the truth, it's clear that this wasn't communicated well at the time to any of the devolved governments.
Unprompted, Mr Jack has now started talking about how he doesn't have a lot of memory on his phone, now that WhatsApps are being raised.
He says he deleted all the messages to free up memory on his phone.
He adds that he now has a phone with a better memory....
He has said that he read through the messages, and decide himself, that it was fine to delete the messages between himself and Health Secretary at the time, Matt Hancock.
Border crossing
"UK borders and border force are reserved within the Scotland Act"
Mr Jack doesn't believe that Scot Gov shouldn't and couldn't close the border - something which was discussed but never enforced during the pandemic.
Again, for the second time today, Mr Jack says "It's a geographical border not a physical border"
"I was quite vocal on the fact it was a geographical and not a physical border". Third time today for anyone keeping score.
He believes that the conversation around border control during the pandemic was there to "play to their audience".
"Their audience was the people of Scotland" was Jamie Dawson KC's response.
Mr Jack is saying again, that if there is a future pandemic, decisions should be made centrally, and then devolution used in the dissemination.
We've now moved on to the Covid Bereaved representative asking questions...
Starting with the deleted WhatsApp.
Mr Jack didn't consider that his messages were important. So deleted them to "free up his phone memory".
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.