Scotland 'could have been better prepared' for Covid

1. Various Scottish health officials, including NHS Scotland's chief executive, have been giving evidence to the Covid Inquiry today
2. Scotland's former health secretary Jeane Freeman says that Scotland could have been better prepared "in some areas" when the pandemic hit
3. She also says that the country came close, but did not run out of PPE
4. Freeman, an MSP under ex-first minister Nicola Sturgeon, previously claimed Holyrood had failed the social care sector during the pandemic
5. Dr Catherine Calderwood, Scotland's former chief medical officer, had been due to give evidence but will now do so at a later date
6. You'll be able to watch the day's evidence sessions by clicking the Play button at the top of this page

Nicola Sturgeon to give evidence tomorrow

PA Media

Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney will give evidence on Thursday

Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will give evidence to the inquiry tomorrow.

Join us to watch the session and follow updates and analysis from 10am.

Here's the timetable:

Thursday 29 June

10am

• Sir Jeremy Farrar attending remotely (Former Director of the Wellcome Trust 2013-2023 and current CSA for WHO)

then

• Nicola Sturgeon (Former FM Scotland 2014-2023 and former Deputy FM Scotland 2007-2014)

2pm

• John Swinney (Former Deputy FM Scotland 2014-2023)

then

• Catherine Frances (Director General for Local Government, Resilience and Communities in DLUHC)

Austerity had a direct impact on the Scottish budget says Freeman

Ms Freeman was asked if there had been a plan to respond to any emerging infectious diseases, other than influenza.

The former Scottish health secretary said that some actions had been updated in response to international outbreaks of MERS and SARS viruses, but there was no specific plan for other pathogens.

She also admitted that recommendations had remained outstanding from planning exercises about the importance of understanding the use of personal protective equipment or PPE, and about redeploying staff in an emergency.

The former health secretary said that capacity issues had already existed before the pandemic because of extra effort to reduce waiting times and improve NHS performance.

Ms Freeman said decisions made at Westminster had also had an impact on the capacity of Scotland's health and social care sectors.

The impact of the UK government in about the previous ten years, where they undertook a policy of what has been described as austerity had a direct impact on the Scottish Government budget, notwithstanding that the health budget and the budget for social care had increased uear on year but not necessarily increased sufficiently to meet with additional demands."

Jeanne FreemanFormer health secretary

Scotland could have been better prepared for Covid-19

Andrew Kerr

Scottish political correspondent

The former health secretary has said that Scotland could have been better prepared for the pandemic - but was not alone.

Jeanne Freeman was giving evidence to the UK Covid Inquiry - which at the moment is focussing on how much had been done across the UK to plan for such an event.

The former health secretary was on a line from Glasgow which broke down three times and was of poor quality throughout.

Counsel to the Inquiry, Kate Blackwell KC put it to Jeanne Freeman that lessons hadn't been heeded, plans hadn't been updated, assumptions remained unchallenged and Scotland was not prepared as it could have been for the pandemic.

Ms Freeman said there were areas where Scotland could have been better prepared - but Scotland like other countries was dealing with a new and unknown virus.

She said there was no plan possible that could have coped with Covid-19 and they could only build on what had been prepared.

Earlier, a senior Scottish civil servant claimed no-deal Brexit preparations had got in the way of preparing for the pandemic.

That completes the evidence from Jeane Freeman

The former health secretary concludes her evidence and the inquiry adjourns for the day.

Changes to PPE supply and distribution were necessary

The former health secretary says there is a difference between supply of PPE and distribution.

Ms Freeman says NSS was a procurement arm for hospitals only. Other parts of health and social care lost out on PPE, and had to source their own.

She says the decision was taken that NSS would sort PPE for all parts of health and social care.

This meant there had to be new orderering channels and distribution within hospitals had to change, she adds, highlighting the PPE phoneline that was put in place.

Ms Freeman explains where issues were raised the government acted in real time to resolve them.

A domestic supply chain of PPE was established, so there was enough PPE but there were issues of distribution, she says.

'The virus was unknown and new'

PA Media

Jeane Freeman, pictured during her time as health secretary

There were areas where Scotland could have been better prepared, concedes Ms Freeman.

She says the virus was unknown and new.

There was a resilience infrastructure which was the architecture we could rest apon as Scotland came to terms with Covid-19, she adds.

Freeman insists PPE did not run out in Scotland

Ms Freeman points out the Scottish government can't borrow or run at a defecit.

Austerity had a direct impact on the Scottish government budget, she says, but the health budget in Scotland had increased year on year.

The former health secretary says National Services Scotland operates as the procurement arm of the NHS in Scotland.

She says there was sufficient PPE at the start of the pandemic.

Although it came close, PPE did not run out in Scotland, insists Ms Freeman.

Exercise Iris: Freeman accepts not all required actions were completed

Susie Forrest

Health producer, BBC Scotland

The former health secretary Jeane Freeman began by offering her condolences to all of those affected by the Covid pandemic, and thanking Scotland's health and social care staff for their work.

She's been giving evidence on a remote connection which has been interrupted several times.

But when questioning has been possible, she explained that although Scotland's preparations for a pandemic were based on UK plans written in 2011, they had been updated with specific lessons learned through planning exercises carried out in Scotland since then, called Exercise Iris and Exercise Silver Swan.

Counsel to the Inquiry Kate Blackwell KC presented documents detailing several concerns identified during Exercise Iris, including "unease among frontline staff at the lack of clarity on PPE availability, training and testing".

Ms Freeman was asked about a summary of 14 required actions arising from the exercise, and agreed that some of them were still outstanding at the time that Covid-19 hit.

And we're back...

The connection to Ms Freeman is back up and running.

Is this connection problem common to Glasgow?

Andrew Kerr

Scottish political correspondent

The focus shifts to the Scottish government's NHS Scotland 2020 mission statement.

But the line to Jeane Freeman has frozen again.

With a smile on her face, the presiding judge Baroness Hallett asks a Scottish KC if this connection problem is common to Glasgow?

Excerise Iris - lessons not fully learned before pandemic

UK Covid Inquiry

Jeane Freeman is giving evidence on Exercise Iris, which was a table-top exercise held in March 2018 to assess NHS Scotland’s response to a suspected outbreak of Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV).

The former health secretary accepts the lessons from this exercise were not completely learned and implemented before the pandemic two years later.

The gremlins issue is resolved again... fingers crossed

Andrew Kerr

Scottish political correspondent

The line to the former Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has frozen again at the UK Covid Inquiry.

Second time it's happened.

Kate Blackwell KC did a valiant job of questioning her. The line was so bad it was actually hard to follow.

It's now back, but the sound is still poor.

Another loss of picture and sound

The sound quality has been poor, so hopefully the inquiry can get a better connection with Jeane Freeman shortly.

It may take a couple of minutes but the inquiry chair Baroness Hallett says: "I'm staying."

Scotland's former health secretary giving evidence... when the technology allows

The former health secretary's evidence to the UK Covid Inquiry has, unfortunately, been sporadically broken up by technical issues.

Jeane Freeman is facing questions on how prepared the Scottish government was for the pandemic.

She was supposed to be have been joined by Dr Catherine Calderwood, the country's former chief medical officer.

But Dr Calderwood, who quit after breaking her own Covid lockdown rules, will now give evidence on another day.

The inquiry declined to provide an explanation for the late rearrangement but its agenda says that all timings for hearings are provisional and subject to change.

Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney are expected to appear before the inquiry on Thursday and we will cover all the analysis and updates as they happen.

The inquiry begins again with an affirmation from Jeane Freeman

Jeane Freeman starts her affirmation from the beginning, now that the technical gremlins appear to have been resolved.

The former health secretary expresses her sincere condolences to everyone affected by the pandemic.

She also thanks the health and social care staff in Scotland.

UK Covid Inquiry

Former Scottish health secretary sworn in remotely

That concludes the evidence from Caroline Lamb.

Scotland's former health secretary will now give evidence to the UK inquiry into the handling of the pandemic.

Jeane Freeman will face questions from the inquiry on how prepared the Scottish government was for the pandemic.

Unfortunately, the videolink to the former health secretary has frozen and the inquiry has been temporarily suspended while technicians work on a fix.

Here's the inquiry timetable for today and tomorrow...

Wednesday 28 June

Coming up next....

• Jeane Freeman attending remotely (Former Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport – Scottish Government 2018-2021)

Thursday 29 June

10am

• Sir Jeremy Farrar attending remotely (Former Director of the Wellcome Trust 2013-2023 and current CSA for WHO)

then

• Nicola Sturgeon (Former FM Scotland 2014-2023 and former Deputy FM Scotland 2007-2014)

2pm

• John Swinney (Former Deputy FM Scotland 2014-2023)

then

• Catherine Frances (Director General for Local Government, Resilience and Communities in DLUHC)

What is this UK inquiry looking at?

This UK Covid Inquiry covers decision-making in Westminster and the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland during the pandemic.

It was launched by Boris Johnson in May 2021, and it's currently looking at how well prepared the UK was for the pandemic.

Any inquiry like this has the power to make people appear as witnesses, and to provide evidence.

And at the end, they're expected to publish conclusions and may make recommendations.

A separate Scottish inquiry that will look specifically at the impact of the virus north of the border has been hit by delays after its original chairwoman quit for personal reasons and four members of the inquiry's legal team also stood down.

How to watch the inquiry

BBC

After the chief executive of NHS Scotland, Caroline Lamb, former Scottish health secretary Jeane Freeman will give evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

The inquiry is still focusing on how prepared the UK was for a pandemic, so we can expect witnesses to be asked about that.

You can watch every moment of the Covid Inquiry by pressing the play icon at the top of this page.

If you can't see it, please refresh your browser or reload the page on the BBC News app.

UK Covid-19 Inquiry resumes

BBC

NHS Scotland chief executive Caroline Lamb

NHS Scotland chief executive Caroline Lamb continues giving evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.