Jamie Dawson KC says: "It seems like you're trying to distance yourself from the responsibility of giving advice, would that be fair?"

"No that would be not fair at all," replies Prof Leitch.

Mr Dawson turns to advice about restrictions and asks if this was communicated to ministers.

The national clinical director said the intention was for this to go to the health minister's private office.

Mr Dawson says letters show Prof Leitch is a "key adviser" but Leitch says he wasn't the only one.

The KC puts it to to the national clinical director that he was the main voice to the first minister but Prof Leitch says there were other experts as well.

Prof Leitch says it was not a difficult for him to move into the Covid-19 response.

"My relationship with the first minister was long-established and strong and I found it easy to slip into that role that she asked me to do," he says.

Prof Leitch adds that his role was communicating clinical advice to government ministers "to the best of my knowledge".

Jamie Dawson KC refers to the "credibility issue" written by Professor Gregor Smith at the time of Dr Catherine Calderwood's resignation.

Prof Leitch says: "There was of course concern, particularly for those of us who were in the public eye, that rule breaks in whatever form they took would have an influence on public compliance and the dialogue we were then able to have because it became the subject of interview rather than talking about the guidance."

The national clinical director tells the inquiry this was a concern over any of the high profile rule breaks.

Image source, WPA Getty

In April 2020 Scotland's chief medical officer resigned after making two trips to her second home during the coronavirus lockdown.

Dr Catherine Calderwood had apologised for her actions, and initially said she planned to continue in the role.

She was backed by then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who said Dr Calderwood had made a mistake but should stay in her job.

But Dr Calderwood released a statement later saying she had quit.

She said she had done so after speaking again to the first minister, and had agreed with her that the "justifiable focus" on her actions risked distracting from the pandemic response.

Read more here

Prof Leitch says the resignation of chief medical officer Dr Catherine Calderwood, after it was revealed she had visited her holiday home during lockdown, meant they lost a "friend and colleague".

But he adds there was a "fairly seamless" change to her successor.

"I'm not sure there is a good time to lose a chief medical officer in an unplanned way," he says.

Prof Leitch adds that a "lot more of the clinical communication came to me".

He says it was a "very important period" ten days after lockdown began and they had to "recover from" losing a CMO.

Jamie Dawson KC, the counsel to the inquiry, begins this morning's evidence session by introducing Prof Leitch and running through his witness statement.

The lawyer asks about the role of the national clinical director.

Prof Leitch explains the job is about the quality and safety of the delivery system including hospitals and primary care.

The national clinical director says the nature of his role changed "dramatically" when the pandemic started.

He says he provided advice to ministers and he had three main roles:

1. Provide advice to the public of Scotland
2. Provide advice to parliamentarians
3. Provide advice to stakeholders

Professor Jason Leitch is sworn in and will now give evidence to the inquiry.

Professor Jason Leitch is Scotland's National Clinical Director and became the very recognisable face of the Scottish government's efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Friday, the inquiry, which is hearing about Scotland's response to the outbreak, was told that Professor Leitch was deleting his WhatsApp messages every night during the pandemic.

He messaged to a colleague that "WhatsApp deletion is a pre-bed ritual".

As Scotland's National Clinical Director, he played a central role in communicating public health messages to the country.

Prof Leitch qualified as a dentist in 1991 and worked as a consultant oral surgeon in Glasgow.

He has worked for the Scottish government since 2007. Prior to this, he worked at the institute for healthcare improvement in Boston.

In January 2015, he was appointed as the national clinical director of healthcare quality and strategy.

• We don't understand rules for using WhatsApp - says ex-minister
• Jason Leitch deleted CovidWhatsApp messages - newspaper report
• Prof Jason Leitch

First up this morning we have Scotland's National Clinical Director Professor Jason Leitch.

He will be followed by Professor Devi Sridhar who is the chair of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh

The afternoon session will hear from Professor Andrew Morris, the Professor of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh.

Image source, PA Media

The UK Covid Inquiry will hear evidence later from one of the Scottish government's most senior health officials, Jason Leitch.

On Friday, the inquiry was told that Professor Leitch was deleting his WhatsApp messages during the pandemic every night.

As Scotland's national clinical director, Prof Leitch played a central role in communicating public health messages to the country through the pandemic.

And as a senior clinical adviser to the Scottish government, his views and discussions in this period matter to this inquiry.

But Friday's hearing was shown an exchange of messages on WhatsApp, in which he wrote "WhatsApp deletion is a pre-bed ritual".

So he's another senior figure, like Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney, whose written communications during the pandemic are incomplete. He'll appear as a witness before the inquiry later today.

Ahead of today's evidence session, here's a reminder of the headlines from the inquiry on Monday 22 January 2024.

• 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 advisers 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 a higher risk from Covid-19 than the rest of the UK
• The chief medical officer also said some information around the Nike conference outbreak in Edinburgh at the start of the pandemic "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
• Monday's session ended with evidence from the former Chief Scientific Officer Professor Sheila Rowan

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the UK Covid Inquiry as it sits in Edinburgh for the sixth day.

Scotland's National Clinical Director Professor Jason Leitch is due to give evidence this morning and we expect that to start at 10:00.

Former judge Lady Hallett will chair this second week of public hearings at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

We’ll bring you live reports, background and analysis of the proceedings.

If you want to watch live from about 10:00, stick with us and press the play icon at the top of the page.