[Politics] Forgetful Prime Minister

[beorhthelm]

It's a huge gaping hole in the official record shirley when hmgov officials can use officially-issued phones for end-to-end-encrypted messaging

this was raised at a some point in the past and recall the conclusion was they cant be expected not to use modern tools. responsibility on officials involved to track and record anything. including backups if necessary.
the matter mixes private and public messages, request that private messages should be covered, requests for messages to be provided once screended/redacted. offcial discussions should be well covered and recorded by officals involved. whats missing is anything private between Sunak and Johnson, which wouldn't be in anyone elses messages.

 

[Bodian]

Ministers are always going to use WhatsApp because it's commonly used and pretty convenient (and handy to misplace messages), but it really shouldn't be used for official business at all exactly because there's no auditable log. Use something like Teams or Slack (I would assume Teams as I believe Microsoft is a preferred provider for Government services) so that there is an actual paper trail.

Yep - exactly the point I keep making to our teams at work. They think I'm a luddite for not fully adopting these sorts of things. But then when they get a request about something that happened five years ago - guess to whom they come running - as 'Bodian will have something, as he keeps stuff'. Don't know how many times I've tried to explain the cause and effect.....