By Ben Kerrigan,
Nicola Sturgeon has told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry her government’s pandemic plan was inadequate and they “did not get everything right” when it came to preparedness.
Scotland’s former First Minister. who has not had the best of relations with the Uk government, was addressing the inquiry, which is still in its early stages of a comprehensive investigation into the handling of the pandemic in Britain, expected to last until 2026.
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The inquiry had recently heard from Matt Hancock, who told the inquiry that UK pandemic preparations were too focused on “the consequences of a disaster” , adding that the government also had no idea whether care homes had the right protections in place, Hancock said – describing the situation as “terrible”
Hancock was in charge of restrictions during the pandemic – including lockdowns and social distancing – but quit in disgrace as health secretary in June 2021 after breaking his own rules. His apology to families of the bereaved were largely rebuffed.
Sturgeon by contrast , presented her own government as doing its best to suppress the virus, rather than seeking ”body bags to bury the dead” as Hancock suggested was the case under the government under which he led as Health Secretary.
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Sturgeon told the inquiry that “the government I led did our best”, but admitted the non-influenza pandemic plan was not up to scratch.
Ms Sturgeon said: “Do I accept the plan was inadequate? In summary, yes.”
However, she rejected accusations it was wholly useless, saying the plan “was for a different type of pandemic”, insisting “that does not mean no part of that plan was useful in any way”.
She told the inquiry that emergency planning worked well in general, but it could be “ad hoc” in nature.
Scotland’s First Minister said planning for a pandemic was hampered by preparation for a no-deal Brexit,
Worst Case Scenario
Ms Sturgeon said there was never a time her government accepted a “worst case scenario” during the pandemic and they were always determined to suppress its spread.
Ms Sturgeon said: “The questions I think that are really important for us all to consider, very very frankly, is could or should we have done more to suppress to the maximum, Covid.
“But speaking on behalf of the government I led at the time, it was never the case that we simply accepted there is a level of harm that is going to be done by this virus and we accept that.
“We were always, in fact, it became later on one of the points of difference between the Scottish and the UK government, the extent to which we were seeking to suppress as opposed to live with the virus.”
‘It was our determination from the outset’, says Nicola Sturgeon, ‘to suppress’ coronavirus ‘to the maximum’
After her evidence, Scotland’s former deputy first minister John Swinney, appearing before the UK Covid Inquiry, admitted that intergovernmental relations at the time of the pandemic was “pretty poor”
However, he said there was a good amount of co-operation and “reasonable practical engagement” between the four nations.
Sturgeon agreed that a UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy – produced in 2011 following the swine flu outbreak two years before – was inadequate to deal with Covid-19
But she suggested that a lack of contact tracing and testing capability was more important to Scotland’s response to the Covid crisis.
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