John Swinney: Scottish Government will ‘carefully’ consider care homes ruling

The Scottish Government will “consider carefully” the recent High Court ruling on hospital discharges to care homes early in the pandemic, Deputy First Minister John Swinney has said.

Judges ruled that the UK Government’s policy on discharging untested patients into care homes were unlawful.

While the court’s judgment did not cover Scotland, the issue of discharges into care homes has come under scrutiny north of the border, too.

Speaking to Holyrood’s Covid-19 Recovery Committee on Thursday, Mr Swinney said Lady Poole’s Scottish Covid inquiry would examine the topic.

The Crown Office is also carrying out a separate investigation into deaths from coronavirus at care homes.

The Deputy First Minister said he expressed “deep regret and sympathy” to everyone who had lost a loved one in a care home.

He said the judgment reflected circumstances in England and was “not directly comparable to the situation in Scotland”.

Mr Swinney said: “We will, of course, consider carefully the issues that are raised by the judgment and beyond what I’ve said already, that will be the subject of further consideration.”

He said it would be inappropriate to comment on material the Crown Office may be gathering for their investigation.

The remit of Lady Poole’s inquiry has an “explicit provision” to examine care homes, he said.