Live Wales Covid inquiry updates: Vaughan Gething used disappearing WhatsApp messages during pandemic

Vaughan Gething used 'disappearing' WhatsApp messages during the Covid pandemic, as the messaging service was "used to discuss government business where [it] shouldn't have been", the Wales Covid inquiry has heard.

Giving evidence, Nia Gowman, representing the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru group, said limited messages that have been disclosed showed WhatsApp and text messages were used to discuss government business, that the Welsh Government's senior special advisers suspiciously and systemtically deleted messages and reminded each other that they had agreed to "clear out WhatsApp chat once a week". She said they also showed Jane Runeckles, the most senior special adviser for the First Minister, and Mr Gething, who was health minister at the time, turning on disappearing messages.

The hearing, which started in Wales today, has heard that coronavirus was "not a priority of the Welsh Government" as late as February 2020. Tom Poole KC, one of the lead counsel to the Covid-19 inquiry, says there are a number of questions arising from the actions of Welsh Government ministers and health officials at the time including whether the risk was "properly appreciated" by the Welsh Government.

Speaking at the Covid inquiry, which started in Wales on Tuesday and will run here until March 14, Mr Poole said: "Were the consequences of the lack of any control measures adequately understood? Does the fact that Covid was not discussed by the Welsh cabinet throughout January indicate that the threat posed by the virus was not taken as seriously as it ought to have been or that the Welsh Government thought the UK Government had things under control and there was no need to take independent action?" You can follow live updates