Five serving police officers have been sacked and three former colleagues told they would have been dismissed over a WhatsApp group featuring "routine misogyny" and "casual racism". The West Yorkshire-based officers were fired after being found guilty of gross misconduct over "derogatory, offensive and discriminatory" messages posted in the group.

Scottish ministers and civil servants will be banned from using mobile messaging applications such as WhatsApp on official devices from next spring. Deputy first minister Kate Forbes said on Tuesday that access to messaging apps would be removed from government devices in line with a commitment to “the highest standards of .

The Scottish Government has banned staff from using WhatsApp on their work phones after Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney deleted all their pandemic-era messages from the platform.

The announcement comes after it was revealed ministers deleted messages exchanged during the pandemic.

The Scottish Government is to stop using WhatsApp for communications, the Deputy First Minister has said. Kate Forbes responded to a review of the use of mobile messaging apps, which made 20 recommendations including on records management and the use of mobile messaging apps.