A top civil servant who urged colleagues to destroy their covid Whatsapp messages retired with a pension worth £1.4m. Ken Thomson was also given a CBE despite his role in one of the biggest scandals of Nicola Sturgeon’s time as First Minister.
Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “Families of the covid bereaved are still desperately searching for answers because people like Ken Thomson deleted their messages. While he enjoys a comfortable retirement, the families may be forever waiting to learn what happened to their loved ones.”
Sturgeon faced a huge backlash this year over revelations she and her senior civil servants deleted their messages during the pandemic. They insisted mass deletion was in line with government guidance, but the families of covid victims alleged a cover up.
Messages retrieved by the UK Covid Inquiry revealed Thomson, who used to be Director General for Strategy and External Affairs, was a key player in the deletion scandal. He told colleagues in a WhatsApp group called ‘Covid Outbreak’ in 2020: “Just to remind you (seriously) this is discoverable under FOI. Know where the “clear chat” button is.” He added: “Plausible deniability are my middle names. Now clear it again!”
Thomson mockingly used a phrase used in letters to reject freedom of information requests: “The information you requested is not held centrally.”
The career civil servant also wrote in 2021: “I feel moved at this point to remind you that this channel is FOI recoverable.” He accompanied this message with a zipped mouth emoji.
According to the latest Scottish Government accounts, Thomson and five other senior civil servants have pension benefits worth over £1m. Thomson’s £1.4m pension is estimated to provide him with an annual sum of around £70,000 a year.
Permanent Secretary John-Paul Marks, who is in his mid 40s, has pension benefits worth just over £1m. The figures for director generals Lesley Fraser and Joe Griffin are £1.4m and £1.07m, while Chief Financial Officer Jackie McAllister has a pension worth £1.03m.
The pension value of Roy Brannen, chief executive of Transport Scotland, is £1.4m, which puts him in line for a lump sum of up to £165,000. For 2023/24, the Scottish Government employer contribution to pensions was between 26.6% to 30.3% of pay.
Thomson was asked at the Inquiry whether the messages showed him encouraging people to delete messages to “defeat” FOI requests. He replied: “No.”
He added: “I’m reminding my colleagues that this channel is discoverable under FOI, which I think is correct, and then I’m saying in an informal way that my understanding of our approach to these groups is that messages should not be kept — other than in relation to salient points, as we’ve just discussed, these messages should not be kept and should therefore be deleted.” Thomson retired late last year and was given a CBE in the New Year’s Honours List.
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said: “This news will come as a slap in the face to those who tragically lost loved ones during the pandemic. The SNP should be focused on giving Covid bereaved families the answers they deserve rather than lining the pockets of those who helped ministers hide the truth from the public.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The pay and pensions framework for Senior Civil Servants is reserved to the UK Government.”
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