Scottish Covid Inquiry: What is it investigating and how does it work?

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry began in 2022 and has heard from a number of key people involved in Scotland’s response to the pandemic – including the former first minister Nicola Sturgeon.

As well as starting earlier than Scotland’s inquiry, its scope is much broader as it covers the impact of the pandemic and decisions taken by the UK government for the whole of the UK.

The Scottish inquiry is only investigating policy areas under the control of the Scottish government.

For example, the UK inquiry will investigate the decisions taken over which Covid vaccine supply strategy to pursue for the whole of the UK.

The Scottish inquiry does not cover which vaccinations were bought, but it will look at the design and delivery of the vaccination strategy as it fell to Scottish ministers to implement these decisions taken at a UK level.

The UK inquiry has already investigated some of the political decision making around the pandemic whereas the Scottish inquiry is leaving this until later in its schedule.

The approach in Scotland is to give priority to evidence from people most affected by the pandemic, such as bereaved relatives and healthcare workers, before moving on to the key decision makers.

This means the conclusions and recommendations will come at the end of the process, which is still likely to be at least two years away.

By contrast, the UK inquiry is doing this as it goes along and in July chairwoman Baroness Hallett published her first findings where she said both UK and Scottish governments “failed their citizens” by not doing enough to properly plan for the crisis.

The UK Covid Inquiry is currently sitting in London and hearing from those involved in delivering healthcare.