Government seeks judicial assessment of Covid inquiry’s demand for Johnson paperwork
T
he Government will battle a authorized battle over the Covid inquiry’s demand to launch Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages, diaries and private notebooks.
The Cabinet Office mentioned it was in search of a judicial assessment of inquiry chairwoman Baroness Hallett’s order to launch the paperwork, arguing that it mustn’t have at hand over materials which is “unambiguously irrelevant”.
In a letter to the inquiry, launched after a 4pm deadline at hand over the fabric, the Cabinet Office mentioned it had offered “as much relevant information as possible, and as quickly as possible” according to the order.
But the letter mentioned: “The Cabinet Office has today sought leave to bring a judicial review. We do so with regret and with an assurance that we will continue to co-operate fully with the inquiry before, during and after the jurisdictional issue in question is determined by the courts, specifically whether the inquiry has the power to compel production of documents and messages which are unambiguously irrelevant to the inquiry’s work, including personal communications and matters unconnected to the Government’s handling of Covid.”
The Government mentioned it thought of there have been “important issues of principle at stake” affecting the rights of people and “the proper conduct of government”.
“The request for unambiguously irrelevant material goes beyond the powers of the inquiry,” the letter mentioned.
“Individuals, junior officials, current and former ministers and departments should not be required to provide material that is irrelevant to the inquiry’s work.
“It represents an unwarranted intrusion into other aspects of the work of government.
“It also represents an intrusion into their legitimate expectations of privacy and protection of their personal information.”
The Cabinet Office had beforehand argued that it didn’t have Mr Johnson’s paperwork – aside from his ministerial diaries – in its possession, however the former prime minister publicly mentioned he had handed the fabric over.
But in a press release to the inquiry, senior civil servant Ellie Nicholson mentioned Mr Johnson’s attorneys haven’t offered a “substantive response” to a request from the Cabinet Office for his previous cell phone.
In her assertion, senior civil servant Ellie Nicholson mentioned the Cabinet Office had acquired Mr Johnson’s WhatsApp messages on Wednesday afternoon and was reviewing the fabric “for national security sensitivities and unambiguously irrelevant material, and appropriate redactions are being applied”.
But the fabric doesn’t embrace messages from earlier than May 2021.
Ms Nicholson’s assertion mentioned: “I understand that this is because, in April 2021, in light of a well-publicised security breach, Mr Johnson implemented security advice relating to the mobile phone he had had up until that time.”
Mr Johnson was pressured to vary his cellular in 2021 after it emerged his quantity had been publicly accessible on-line for 15 years.
Mr Johnson’s notebooks might be shared with the Covid inquiry in batches because the Cabinet Office didn’t have sufficient time to redact them after they had been handed over, the inquiry was advised.