You can’t magic testing capability out of thin air
The inquiry heard that 50% of the deaths in Scotland in the first wave of the pandemic happened in care homes. Giving evidence on 29 January, Jeane Freeman, the former Scottish health secretary, said, “I regret very much, and will do for the rest of my life, any deaths that occurred there because of action that the Scottish government didn’t take or did take but could have done better.”1 The Scottish government first published advice that people being admitted to care homes should be tested on 21 April 2020. Freeman said the “primary issue” before then had been testing capacity. “You cannot magic out of thin air appropriate buildings, appropriate kit, and skilled individuals. A lot of effort was put into increasing our capacity for testing.” Freeman said that retaining the core testing ability is one of the lessons that should be learnt from the pandemic and expressed disappointment that the Glasgow Lighthouse laboratory hasn’t been retained for similar outbreaks in the future. Freeman also said there was not “sufficient urgency from the UK government” at a Cobra meeting in March 2020. At that meeting she said she had queried officials’ intentions to focus on flights to the UK from Wuhan arguing that international travellers often travelled through hubs such as Schiphol or Dubai.
An emotional Sturgeon takes the stand
First minister Nicola Sturgeon was on the brink of tears at various times when giving evidence to the inquiry on 31 January.2 She said she felt the number of lives lost was “far too high” and she wanted to say “sorry to each and every bereaved person, and each and every person who suffered in other ways. I did my best, my government did our best, and people will judge that.” She said, “Of the many regrets I have, probably chief of those is that we didn’t lock down a week, two weeks earlier than we did.” Sturgeon denied accusations that she had used the pandemic to boost support for Scottish independence. She also rejected accusations that Scotland’s pandemic response was run on her instincts. Giving evidence the following day, Alister Jack, the Scotland secretary, dismissed Sturgeon’s tears. “I thought she could cry from one eye if she wanted to.”3
Sturgeon denies secrecy during covid
Sturgeon said she regretted not telling people about Scotland’s first outbreak, involving 38 cases, linked to a conference of the sports company Nike that took place in Edinburgh in February 2020. It was reported to Health Protection Scotland on 2 March 2020 a day after Scotland’s first confirmed case of the virus was announced. She says she took advice from the then chief medical officer Catherine Calderwood that because of the small number of people at the conference it would have risked identifying those infected. She said there were judgements that had to be made constantly and the government was trying to reach the best decision they could. If some of the decisions were not what they should have been, it doesn’t mean they were reached with the motive of secrecy, she told the inquiry. She also said that a lack of testing did not reflect a lack of urgency felt by the government.
Rift between Scotland and the rest of the UK
Giving evidence on 29 January, Michael Gove, former UK cabinet minister, accused Sturgeon of breaking confidentiality and “jumping the gun” when she announced a ban on mass gatherings before the rest of the UK.1 He said this caused “discomfort” and disquiet in Whitehall and led Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other ministers and civil servants to question whether Surgeon could be trusted. Sturgeon announced at 3:20 pm on 12 March 2020 that the Scottish government would ban any gatherings of 500 people or more the following week. Sturgeon denied that the move was designed to annoy the UK government. She told the inquiry on 31 January, “At no point in my thinking was I trying to steal a march on anybody else or trying to get ahead of it.” She said her responsibility was to the Scottish people, not Johnson, adding, “I communicated these things quickly, perhaps the UK government were communicating them too slowly.”
Record keeping still a problem
Jamie Dawson, the inquiry’s Scottish counsel, questioned why the Scottish government failed to record discussions during crucial “gold command” meetings involving only a small number of ministers and advisers. “It becomes difficult to understand what precisely the ultimate decision making process is, when there is no record of how those decisions were taken.” Kate Forbes, then finance secretary, was not included in the gold meetings during 2020, the inquiry was told. During her evidence on 31 January, Sturgeon admitted that the meetings should have been recorded. John Swinney, then deputy minister, told the inquiry on 30 January that “very extensive discussions about covid restrictions were had at cabinet level” but that the decision to close schools in March 2020 was taken during a conversation between himself and Sturgeon and was not discussed in full cabinet.4 He said there wasn’t any assessment made on the potential impact of closures on disadvantaged children, those with disabilities, or on young people’s mental health because the situation was moving at a “ferocious pace.” He told the inquiry that he had deleted all his WhatsApp messages as he had been advised that that was appropriate. The inquiry has previously established that Sturgeon and other senior civil servants also deleted their messages routinely.
