Covid Bereaved group ‘will hold Government to account on Covid lessons’

The Scottish Covid Bereaved group will hold the Government to account to ensure lessons are learned from the pandemic, a member has said.

The UK-wide Covid-19 Inquiry released its second of 10 reports on Thursday, criticising the decision-making of both the UK and devolved governments.

North of the border, Baroness Heather Hallett found, former first minister Nicola Sturgeon “sidelined” senior ministers and advisers, turning the Scottish cabinet into a decision ratifying body.

The former first minister’s administration was also criticised for having “no real strategy” in the months before the pandemic was declared, as the virus was spreading.

Responding to the report, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said an advisory group would be formed to ensure Scotland could learn from the last pandemic and apply that to any future crisis.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland on Friday, Maggie Waterton said the group representing those who lost a loved one during the pandemic will ensure lessons are taken on board.

“Some of us from Scottish Covid Bereaved are working with the Scottish Government as part of their stakeholder approach to how we look at the recommendations from the UK Covid Inquiry,” she said.

“Our determination is that, as citizens of Scotland, it’s our role and responsibility and accountability to make sure that we hold our politicians to account and we ensure that they deliver on these recommendations, implement them in full and that these changes are made meaningfully and promptly, so that we leant those lessons and this doesn’t happen again.”

Ms Waterton added that the inquiry’s finding that Ms Sturgeon’s decision-making was sometimes too insular “evidences what we did think was happening”.

“Our former first minister has come out swinging, really, to defend herself, her approach,” she said.

“The evidence that we heard, and I sat through all of the evidence in Edinburgh… it was apparent that Ms Sturgeon as the first minister and Mr Swinney as the then-deputy first minister were making some decisions outside of the Scottish cabinet.

“The gold command structure, there were no minutes from that, so you’ve got no idea who’s saying what, how decisions were made and what the contrary voices were.”

Speaking to journalists at Holyrood just over an hour after the report was published, Ms Sturgeon said her biggest regret about the so-called “gold command” meetings – bringing together senior ministers and advisers outside the usual cabinet meetings – was the name.

“It gives an impression that they were something that they weren’t,” she said.

“They were discursive forums, opportunities for me, with key ministers depending on the subject matter, and key officials to kick round the different options we were considering, then take decisions to Cabinet.

“I would respectfully say that any reading of Cabinet minutes from the time would suggest that Cabinet was not some kind of rubber-stamp.”