The afternoon session at the UK Covid inquiry has ended. If you're just joining us here's a reminder of the headlines today:

• Scotland's chief medical officer said he frequently deleted WhatsApp messages in line with Scottish government policies on information retention
• Prof Sir Gregor Smith defended the expertise of Scotland's clinical advisors by highlighting public confidence was high in Scotland
• He also said the decision-makers in Scotland followed the science
• Sir Gregor told the inquiry Scotland was at higher risk from Covid-19 than the rest of the UK
• The chief medical officer also said some information around the Nike conference outreak "should have been released"
• He denied there was a lack of urgency in the Scottish government's response to the pandemic
• Earlier in the morning session NHS Scotland Chief Executive Caroline Lamb insisted lessons were learned after the first two waves of Covid and ahead of the Omicron wave
• The inquiry ended today with evidence from the former Chief Scientific Officer Professor Sheila Rowan

We will return with more live coverage of the inquiry tomorrow morning from 10:00. National Clinical Director Prof Jason Leitch will be the first witness. The editors today were Mary McCool and Graeme Esson. The writers were Ashleigh Keenan-Bryce and Craig Hutchison.

Lawyer, Heather Alridge, questions Prof Rowan on the creation of a "single forum" for all Scottish government advisors to come together and share their individual expertise, prompting the creation of what is known as the 'chiefs group'.

Prof Rowan said: "There were forums in which combinations of the chief advisors would be present to be understanding the different roles that one another were performing and discuss that.

"There was no one forum where all the chief advisors met and could share information about ongoing commissions, take a strategic look at what future advice might be needed and then collectively have that understanding of what one another were doing.

She added: "I would say the most useful role of that group was simply information sharing so that each advisor could go off and do their own job."

Professor Sheila Rowan, the former chief scientific adviser for Scotland, is the final person to take the witness stand on Monday.

She was appointed to this part-time position within the Scottish government in 2016.

Prof Rowan has been director of the Institute for Gravitational Research at the University of Glasgow since 2009.

Mr Dawson says in July 2021 there was the Delta variant, which then was overtaken by the Omicron wave towards the end of the year.

This third wave had roughly the same level of illness as the first two, says the counsel to the inquiry, and he says the main protection against the virus was the vaccine.

He asks to what extent Sir Gregor was pushing for greater restrictions at this time.

Scotland's chief medical officer says vaccines and thereapeutics were offering greater protection against Covid, however he adds "I would have preferred to see a slightly more stringent approach".

He says vaccination plus testing would give a greater degree of protection.

Sir Gregor explains that during the time he would have preferred to see stronger restrictions.

He says he provided advice calling for more testing.

Mr Dawson shows an advice paper issued in September by Sir Gregor, the national clinical director Jason Leitch and the chief nursing officer.

The consensus of the three parties in the document was that a "firebreak" lockdown would be required during the school holidays starting 12 October 2020.

Mr Dawson reads aloud the document which states "We fully acknowledge the seriousness of this and we have discussed at some length whether we could still recommend a less stringent firebreak."

He then goes on to a second document, issued by the same three parties later on that day which states "a firebreak amounting to a general stay-at-home order may be required if our recommended measures do not have the desired effect" - but that they did not propose it at that stage.

Sir Gregor explains that the initial document stating a firebreak lockdown would be required over the school holidays was simply a draft that was then checked by the three parties issuing the advice paper.

Probed further by Lady Hallett over "quite a dramatic change", Sir Gregor said: "I have to say to you that I don't know where that first advice came from and I can only assume that's how it's been drafted and that it has been altered when three chief advisors have looked at it."

The questioning turns to the possibility of achieving "zero Covid".

Sir Gregor says "elimination" was used colloquially rather than scientifically and that zero Covid was never a formal policy in Scotland.

"I didn't think elimination of the virus was a viable option, " he says, but adds keeping the levels as low as possible was desirable.

He adds it would have been almost impossible for Scotland to achieve that by itself.

Mr Dawson asks whether Sir Gregor's advice to the Scottish government was to ease restrictions more slowly than the rest of the UK when considering Scotland's higher level of other illnesses and the older population.

Sir Gregor said his advice at that point was taken in context of the four-harms strategy and that the risk to the Scottish population was greater.

Mr Dawson goes on to discuss the national tolerance of risk and harm which was measured by polling and attitude surveys.

Sir Gregor said: "What we saw was that the level of fear and anxiety through some of this polling and attitude survey was really quite significant and fear of the virus was evident. We also heard very clearly and strongly through public groups who were expressing concern.

"There was, I think it's fair to say, a real anxiety and concern, particularly for those who identify the highest risk groups - which would have been known at the start of the pandemic as the shielding groups.

“Whilst the advice that I may have given during that time remained fairly constant, it was always influenced for the decision-makers by advice which was coming from other areas of government and in particular took into account the impact of the other harms.”

Jamie Dawson KC notes Scotland has an ageing population and Scotland's different approach was taken in part by different morbidities and health inequalities.

Sir Gregor explains Scotland had worse health and greater inequalities going into the pandemic, which were perpetuated by the pandemic.

The chief medical officer tell the inquiry that was why the risk for Scotland was slightly higher than the rest of the UK.

He says this was reflected in his advice in May 2020.

Sir Gregor says the Scottish population has continually been older than other parts of the UK and has a heavier burden of disease.

Returning after a short break, Mr Dawson asks Sir Gregor about the Scottish government's powers to impose restrictions on the country and whether the Scottish government had the legal powers to do so.

Sir Gregor says although Scotland had the powers to take those actions, one of the difficulties in doing so was "to be able to identify particularly the financial support for people to support them during that period."

Image source, WPA Getty

Jamie Dawson KC asks what impact the resignation of Dr Catherine Calderwood had - and was the chief medical officer serious about it having no impact.

The then chief medical officer resigned in April 2020 after making two trips to her second home during the coronavirus lockdown.

"The biggest impact that it had was in the workload for the rest of the directorate at that point of time," replies Sir Gregor.

He says they suddenly found themselves without an important, trusted colleague and he had to build relationships with ministers.

Over March his time with ministers increased including a number of conversations with former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

"I was able to slip into the role without too much detriment," he says.

Sir Gregor believes he had a trusted relationship with then Health Secretary Jeanne Freeman, but not quite the level of contact with the former first minister as Dr Calderwood had.

Image source, Reuters

The inquiry goes on to discuss Scotland's first recognised outbreak of Covid, which was traced to a Nike conference in February 2020 at the Hilton Carlton hotel in Edinburgh.

Sir Gregor says there was a great deal of concern about the welfare for people who had been identified as having Covid-19 - a process called deductive disclosure.

"This is about managing the tension that exists between not giving information which could lead to the deductive disclosure or identification of a person associated with an outbreak and fulfilling legitimate public interest in terms of public messaging and transparency," Sir Gregor says.

His predecessor was "very against" any circumstances where she may be responsible for the release of confidential patient information, he adds.

Sir Gregor adds: "My own view in this case and it's probably recorded in some of the email system is that while it's important to maintain patient confidentiality at all times, there was in this case a legitimate public interest that meant that some form of information could be released but it had to be very very carefully thought through."

Jamie Dawson KC ask if the Scottish government did not have a strategy for testing at the beinning of the pandemic until Professor Crossman produced one.

Sir Gregor agrees the professor took the informal approach and formalised that with a written strategy.

The World Health Organization (WHO) viewed testing as very important but perhaps they were not nuanced enough in how testing should be used, says Sir Gregor.

The WHO famously recommended at the start of the pandemic that countries "test, test, test".

Jamie Dawson KC asks if Scotland simply wasn't ready to undergo that testing.

Sir Gregor replies: "One of things that I think was misrepresented here by WHO in the early stages was actually the difficulties in trying to increase the capacity sufficiently quickly to develop testing at scale."

Mr Dawson asks: "So they were saying you should test, test, test and Scotland said we couldn't, couldn't, couldn't."

Sir Gregor responds: "I think that is perhaps a characterisation that is unfair, I think Scotland recognised the need for testing and great efforts were made by the teams involved to try to increase the capacity around testing as quickly as possible."

He says he witnessed the "incredible efforts" of those involved in testing to try to make sure that Scotland and the UK were ready.

Image source, SNS

Mr Dawson asks Sir Gregor about his recollections of a game by Scotland's international rugby team in Rome in February 2020 and a match where the international women's team was due to play outside of Milan.

He asks whether Sir Gregor recalls then chief medical officer, Catherine Calderwood, or anyone in the department being asked to provide advice about matches.

Sir Gregor says: "All I can speak for is that I wasn't approached for advice myself."

Mr Dawson asks, were such advice provided, would it have been done in writing?

Sir Gregor responds: "In a situation like that there may have been verbal advice given, there may have been written advice given but I can only speak from my own experience in relation to that rugby match and that I wasn't asked to provide advice."

Jamie Dawson KC asks if there was a lack of urgency about the threat posed by coronavirus at the beginning of the pandemic.

Sir Gregor says he was party to conversations in January and February of 2020 which indicated that Covid-19 was "a very urgent threat" and that "people really needed to turn their attention" to the disease.

He adds: "Health and social care directors were incredibly worried."

Sir Gregor says urgency led to action including briefing mechanisms to ensure the level of threat was understood by aspects of the health service.

He says they also ensured proper links were established between departments in Scotland and the rest of the UK, to make sure information was shared between them.

They also looked at the use of laboratories for testing, he adds.

What urgency was shown at start of pandemic?published at 14:23 Greenwich Mean Time 22 January

14:23 GMT 22 January

Susie Forrest
Health producer, BBC Scotland

The current chief medical officer has told the Covid inquiry he can't speculate on advice given by his predecessor, Dr Catherine Calderwood, to ministers in the early part of the Covid pandemic.

Professor Sir Gregor Smith was asked about emails sent to Dr Calderwood from Professor Mark Woolhouse of Edinburgh University in January 2020, warning of the urgent threat from the virus and the need for a testing system to be set up – but Sir Gregor said he didn't know if this advice was passed to ministers either in written or oral form.

Dr Calderwood resigned as CMO in April 2020 after breaking coronavirus restrictions by travelling to her holiday home in Fife.

She's been excused from giving evidence in this part of the inquiry for health reasons.

Image source, Getty Images

Professor Sir Gregor Smith is a GP and former medical director for primary care in NHS Lanarkshire.

He later led the development of a new quality framework for general practice in Scotland and was appointed deputy chief medical officer in 2015.

He was appointed to the role of Scotland's Chief Medical Officer in December 2020, taking over from Catherine Calderwood.

Sir Gregor received a knighthood in the Queen's New Year Honours list in 2022 for services to public health and is an honorary professor at the University of Glasgow.

Image source, PA Media

The first Covid-19 death in Scotland was reported by NHS Lothian on 13 March 2020.

After this point the death rates ebbed and flowed with the different waves of the pandemic.

In the latest statistics 18,541 people in Scotland died with Covid according to the National Records of Scotland (NRS).

People are still dying of Covid in Scotland every week. NRS data shows that in the last week of 2023, a total of 30 deaths were recorded where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificates.

Most Covid deaths occurred in hospitals and care homes.

Scotland's chief medical officer Prof Sir Gregor Smith returns to give further evidence to the inquiry.

Later on this afternoon former chief scientific adviser for Scotland Prof Sheila Rowan is expected to appear.

The morning evidence session of the Covid-19 inquiry draws to a close. If you're just joining us here's a reminder of the headlines so far:

• Scotland's chief medical officer said he frequently deleted WhatsApp messages in line with Scottish government policies on information retention
• Prof Sir Gregor Smith defended the expertise of Scotland's clinical advisors by highlighting public confidence was high in Scotland
• He also said the decision-makers in Scotland followed the science
• Earlier NHS Scotland Chief Executive Caroline Lamb insisted lessons were learned after the first two waves of Covid and ahead of the Omicron wave

We will return at 13:45 when the chief medical officer will continue to give evidence.