Scottish Government 'failed citizens' with 'flawed' Covid strategy

Both the Scottish and UK governments "failed their citizens" by not being adequately prepared for the pandemic, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has found.

The chair of the inquiry, Baroness Hallett, has called for fundamental reform of public health emergency planning after finding that ministers in Nicola Sturgeon's administration adopted flawed UK government resilience plans and did not adapt them for Scotland’s needs.

First Minister John Swinney, who was deputy first minister and education secretary at the time of the pandemic, going on the become secretary for Covid recovery in May 2021, has said he will "consider in great detail" Baroness Hallett's findings.

More than 235,000 people across the UK had Covid listed as a cause of death after the first cases were detected in early 2020. More than 17,000 of them were in Scotland.

In her report – the first to be issued by the inquiry, which is ongoing – Baroness Hallett said the UK was "ill-prepared for dealing with a catastrophic emergency, let alone the coronavirus pandemic".

"I have no hesitation in concluding that the processes, planning and policy of the civil contingency structures across the UK failed the citizens of all four nations," she wrote.

"There were serious errors on the part of the state and serious flaws in our civil emergency systems. This cannot be allowed to happen again."

The inquiry also found that the administrations had prepared for the wrong pandemic after they relied on a strategy for influenza that was drawn up in 2011.

The UK Government and devolved administrations were also found to have responded with an untested approach, proceeding on the basis that the outcome was "inevitable" and focusing on managing casualties rather than mitigating or preventing the emergency.

On Scotland specifically, the report found that no separate analysis had been done that "adequately" took into account specific factors that might differently affect the Scottish population.

It also said that parts of the Scottish government responsible for emergency planning were subject to a number of reorganisations, leaving them further from the centre of government and causing confusion.

"Unless the lessons are learned and fundamental change is implemented, the human and financial cost and sacrifice of the Covid -19 pandemic will have been in vain," Baroness Hallett said.

Noting that "it is not a question of ‘if’ another pandemic will strike, but ‘when’", she recommended that a new pandemic strategy be put in place and tested every three years and that a new independent body be set up to oversee the changes.

Scottish Labour health spokesperson Jackie Baillie called the inquiry’s findings "damning" and said they raise "serious shortcomings".

"During the pandemic, people across Scotland were let down by two ill-prepared governments and the consequences were catastrophic," she said.

"All those in power owe us complete transparency and honesty as this inquiry continues to seek the truth about what went so tragically wrong."

Prime minister Keir Starmer said the report "confirms what many have always believed – that the UK was under-prepared for Covid-19, and that process, planning and policy across all four nations failed UK citizens”.

"The pandemic showed us that the backbone of Britain is made up of those committing their lives to service – key workers like carers, nurses, paramedics, cleaners and teachers," he said.

"They put themselves in the eye of the storm, and together with people up and down the country, many of them lost their lives or are still living with the impact of the virus."

Swinney said the Scottish Government will "carefully consider" Baroness Hallett's recommendations and provide "detailed responses" within the timescales she has set out.

"We offer our deepest sympathies to those who have experienced pain and grief. It is with their loss in mind that we continue efforts to make effective, practical and measurable improvements in pandemic planning," he said.

"The implementation of recommendations will require collaborative action with our counterparts across the four nations, and the Scottish Government is committed to working together, at all levels, in a way which allows us to best prevent, prepare for and respond to future civil emergencies."

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry sat in Scotland at the beginning of this year and heard evidence of poor relations between the UK and Scottish governments and of Scottish ministers and advisers routinely deleting WhatsApp messages in which they discussed the pandemic response.

The separate Scottish Covid Inquiry, which is being overseen by Lord Brailsford, is ongoing.