UK high court to look at legal battle over WhatsApp evidence for Covid inquiry

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A legal battle between the Cabinet Office and Covid public inquiry will be considered by the high court on Friday, amid wrangling over the issue of redacted documents, including Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages.

Two days have been set aside for judges to consider whether the government or Heather Hallett, the inquiry’s chair, has the right to decide whether such material may be relevant to the investigation.

The result will have significant implications for other evidence Lady Hallett might request, including from serving ministers.

It was announced this month that the Cabinet Office would launch a judicial review to stop all of Johnson’s unredacted messages, diaries and notebooks being handed over to the public inquiry.

The government argued it had the right to decide what was “unambiguously irrelevant” and that sensitive or personal information should not be handed over.

But Hallett said her inquiry had been given wide-ranging terms of reference by the government and had the right to request information officials deemed potentially relevant.

Lord Justice Dingemans and Justice Garnham will preside over the two-day hearing, which begins at 10.30 on Friday.

“The inquiry argues that what’s relevant isn’t just material about Covid, but other things that might have been taking up ministerial attention” according to Emma Norris, deputy director at the Institute for Government thinktank.

“For example, how much time were they spending thinking about the pandemic versus issues like Brexit or other policy decisions.”

She said the government was “worried about the precedent that might be set” if the requested material from Johnson and Henry Cook, a No 10 aide during his premiership, were handed over in full.

Norris suggested that “lots of legal commentators think it’s unlikely that the review will go in the government’s favour” and that there was cause for concern if it won.

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“[The Cabinet Office] has an interest in the inquiry,” she said. “The inquiry chair is an independent person, who’s been appointed with the consent of government to oversee an independent process precisely so it can decide what is relevant. It would tie the hands, to some extent, of the inquiry if it isn’t able to access things that will help it draw those conclusions.”

The Cabinet Office has argued previously it remained “committed to our obligations to the Covid-19 inquiry”.

A spokesperson said in May: “Extensive time and effort has gone into assisting the inquiry fulsomely over the last 11 months. We will continue to provide all relevant material to the inquiry, in line with the law, ahead of proceedings getting under way.”

Johnson himself has said he will cooperate fully, and offered to circumvent the Cabinet Office by handing over the documents directly to the inquiry.