Oral Answers to Questions — Finance – in the Northern Ireland Assembly am 2:30 pm ar 7 Mai 2024.
T1. Mr O'Toole asked the Minister of Finance whether, following its publication of a progress report on recommendations from the renewable heat incentive (RHI) inquiry, her Department should revisit the green rating that it awarded itself in March for its implementation of recommendation 28, which refers to improving the culture and practice of record-keeping, in light of the fact that, in the past couple of weeks, the COVID inquiry has uncovered routine wiping of phones by senior officials and Ministers, with it taking seven attempts to get the minutes of a critical Executive meeting. (AQT 251/22-27)
I am sorry, Minister. I caution Members about asking questions in light of the Inquiries Act 2005 and any legal proceedings, as those questions could be about a matter that is sub judice. I caution Members and Ministers about saying anything that would be in contempt of the inquiry or a court. With that in mind, Minister, please continue.
The COVID inquiry is ongoing and taking evidence. Clearly, while that inquiry's important work continues, I do not want to get into a running commentary about specific evidence. That was, obviously, a very challenging time for everyone, but it was particularly traumatic for those people who lost loved ones. I fully support the inquiry's work and hope that it will help those people to come to terms with the devastating impact that COVID had on their life.
Budgets and resources have been reprioritised in my Department in order to meet our statutory responsibilities to the inquiry, and it is important that we learn lessons from the events that are being examined to make sure that we are better prepared for and can respond to a similar global health emergency, should it ever arise in future.
With respect, Minister, this is not simply about the COVID inquiry; it is about culture and practice in the Civil Service, which your Department has responsibility for and on which we spent many millions of pounds reviewing in the Coghlin inquiry. Quite apart from the COVID inquiry, I ask that your Department revisit and re-examine its culture and practice of record-keeping, given that it marked its own homework in March and said that it was doing just fine on record-keeping. It appears, from what we have heard in the past couple of weeks, that we certainly are not.
My Department developed new guidance for the Civil Service in June 2022 for official information that is held in non-corporate communication channels. That guidance sets out when non-corporate devices or communication channels may be used for official business and how any official information, including WhatsApp messages, should be handled. The guidance will be translated into policy and disseminated across Departments by 31 May 2024. As I mentioned, it is each individual's responsibility to ensure that all relevant information is retained on Content Manager, which is an official repository for Civil Service documents and record management. That is clearly set out in the overarching Civil Service record-management policy and NI Executive codes of conduct.