Giving evidence to the counsel today, she said: “I apologise if that answer was not as clear, but I also want to be very clear and give the inquiry a personal assurance that I am certain that the inquiry has at its disposable anything and everything germane to my decision-making during the process and the time period of the pandemic, and the factors underpinning those decisions.”

She also said that she did not recall ever being told about the importance of retaining material related to Covid ahead of the inquiry.

On August 3 2021, an email was sent around by Lesley Fraser and Kenneth Thomson, stressing the importance keeping messages related to Covid.

Sturgeon was asked by senior counsel to the inquiry, Jamie Dawson, if she recalled receiving that email, to which she said she did not, stating: “I do not as far as I am aware, I did not receive that.”

Dawson then asked: “You recall, I would imagine, in a general sense that such a notification was sent out?”

Sturgeon replied: “I would say this: that I don’t think I would have required to see that to know that matters that were relevant to know the matters that were relevant.”

She also told the inquiry that there was a “high degree of formality” regarding the Scottish Government’s decision-making during the pandemic, despite admitting that the use of WhatsApp had become “too common”.

The former first minister insisted that she did not use informal messaging apps for decision making however Dawson challenged her on this, saying that she “at least rarely used them”.

Sturgeon said: “I have not said and I’m not saying today that I never used informal means of communication. What I am saying is that I did so very rarely and not to discuss issues of substance or anything that could be described as decision-making.

“There was a high degree of formality around the decision-making of the Scottish Government.”

Whilst admitting that WhatsApp had become a preferred choice of communication for some within the government, she maintained that key decisions were not made via the app.

She said: “When people are sending messages on WhatsApp, they don’t think, including me and therefore messages, when they are looked back at later on, can be open to different interpretations because people haven’t really thought about the words they’re using.

“And I think that certainly would be true of some of the exchanges that the inquiry has been looking at.”

More to follow…