5. Submissions on Behalf of the Scottish Government by Mr Mitchell KC

Mr Mitchell: Good morning, my Lady. I appear at these public hearings on behalf of the Scottish Government. I appear along with my juniors, Fiona Drysdale and Jennifer Nicholson-White, and we are instructed by Caroline Beattie of the Scottish Government Legal Directorate.

My theme this morning is one of commitment, commitment to the Chair, to the Inquiry process, and to the people of Scotland. That commitment is to assist and to co-operate with the Inquiry, to listen to the evidence and to learn lessons that might flow from that evidence.

Before going any further, on behalf of the Scottish Government I would like to recognise the loss suffered by the people of Scotland and the wider UK population during the pandemic.

Everyone suffered, and many thousands lost their lives. That loss is felt, understood, and acknowledged by the Scottish Government. Indeed, how could it be otherwise?

The people of Scotland are resilient, they responded to the challenges of Covid-19, and together Scotland emerged from the pandemic. Yet the cost was high. Certain sections of Scottish society suffered more than others. Legitimate questions arise as to whether the suffering needed to have been quite so great.

The continuing goal of the Scottish Government is to build a resilient Scotland that is able to protect all its citizens from risks that emerge to threaten the safety of modern day society. Therefore, let me repeat one of the commitments that I have already given: the Scottish Government comes here to listen and is eager to learn how its processes, structures and policies on preparedness could be improved.

Let me say something about Scotland’s resilience system, which Mr Keith touched on briefly yesterday.

The Scottish Government has taken an approach over many years to build resilience capacity to deal with any risks faced by the country, including preparing for a pandemic. The Scottish Government approached pandemic risks in the way that it approached any risk. Often they prepared in partnership with the UK Government and other devolved administrations, on what is sometimes called a four nations basis.

It may be helpful if I take some time here to set out in brief terms the resilience system as it exists in Scotland.

In general terms, the development of resilience in Scotland has focused on consequences, not causes. In other words, an all-risks approach is adopted whereby planning can be adapted readily to fit a wide range of issues.

Within the Scottish Government there are, broadly speaking, two functions to preparedness. The first is a central managerial function. Here, a central resilience division of Scottish Government works with different branches of the government and public bodies to assess a whole range of risks, whether that be a risk of flooding or a risk of terrorism.

In the case of the assessment of a pandemic risk, there is close co-operation between the resilience divisions, the health and social care department of Scottish Government, and NHS boards. Should an incident or emergency arise, the Scottish Government Resilience Room can meet to co-ordinate and direct actions designed to respond to the incident. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Resilience Room met on a regular basis and a frequent basis and was often chaired by either the First Minister or the Deputy First Minister.

The second function supports the development and delivery of the plans that deal with risks and emergencies. This is underpinned by the Civil Contingencies Act of 2004, of which we have already heard. That seeks to minimise disruption in the event of an emergency, and to ensure that the UK is better prepared to deal with these emergencies.

Whenever there is an emergency in Scotland, different organisations work together to tackle it. Depending on the nature of the incident this might include Police Scotland, the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service, health boards or local authorities.

These organisations form something called a “resilience partnership”, which structure allows them to co-ordinate, collaborate and to share information. The structure which supports multi-agency co-ordination is the regional resilience partnership. There are three regional resilience partnerships, in the north, in the east and in the west of Scotland. Within each regional partnership sits several local resilience partnerships, the composition of which are determined by the regional partnerships. The regional partnerships and the local partnerships bring together all the relevant organisations in an area to develop an effective approach in dealing with emergencies.

Also supporting the second function of development and delivery is the Scottish Resilience Partnership. This is a core group of the most senior statutory responders and key resilience partners. The group acts as a strategic policy forum for resilience issues, providing assurance to ministers that statutory responders and key resilience partners are aware of any significant resilience gaps and priorities, and that they are addressing these. It provides advice to the resilience community on how best to ensure that Scotland is prepared to respond effectively to major emergencies.

The Scottish Government and statutory responders have long acknowledged and valued the contribution to national resilience that is made by the wide range of bodies in the third sector, the private sector, and community groups which activate in response to emergency events.

To support collective discussion around the all-risks approach to preparedness and response arrangements, the Scottish Government hosts regular meetings of the voluntary sector resilience partnership. This partnership brings these parties together to build connections, relationships and an understanding of each other’s capacity and capabilities to enable better planning and co-ordination around emergency response arrangements.

In this way, and assisted by Scottish Government guidance contained in a series of documents entitled “Preparing Scotland: Scottish Guidance on Resilience”, which was published from 2016, organisations within Scotland are able to plan for emergencies at a local and regional level. This is, in fact, a simple and easily understood structure. It was within this structure that pandemic preparations were made.

With mention of pandemic preparation, it may be useful for interested observers to know a little about the Scottish Government’s preparation for a pandemic.

The Scottish Government’s approach to pandemic planning was guided by three things: firstly, advice from scientists and experts from the UK and the World Health Organisation; secondly, by best practice; and thirdly, by prior experience.

Preparations were, again, made at a national, regional and local level. Some preparations were also made at a four nations level, thus, for example, the Scottish Government collaborated in the development of the UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy from 2011, of which we have heard already.

This document provided background information and gave guidance to organisations for developing plans. Further, close links existed and continue to exist between the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland and the Chief Medical Officer for the other nations, thereby allowing the exchange of information on pandemic risk. In addition, Scottish officials participated in a UK government-led pandemic readiness flu board.

Turning to plans made at a Scottish national, regional and local level, the Scottish risk assessment published in 2018, which we have also heard of, supplements the UK national risk assessment. It identified and analysed ten actual risks facing Scotland, including pandemic influenza, which was identified as having a high likelihood of occurring. The risk assessment provided a means by which local and regional organisations could prepare and respond to the risks identified.

In 2017, the Scottish Government established its own pandemic flu preparedness board designed to drive forward particular aspects of pandemic preparation in Scotland, often on devolved matters.

The Scottish Government participated in a UK-wide pandemic influenza exercise, Exercise Cygnus, in 2016. In 2015, it ran its own Scottish-wide pandemic influenza exercise called Exercise Silver Swan, and in 2018 Exercise Iris assessed NHS Scotland’s response to a suspected outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

The combined effect of these and other preparations was that across Scotland the Scottish Government, together with organisations from health boards to local authorities, had in place influenza pandemic preparedness plans.

Now, of course it has to be recognised that such plans were not an exact match for a coronavirus pandemic. However, many of their features could be adapted, and the lessons learned while preparing for an influenza pandemic were of great benefit when responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It should also be recognised that for much of this period the Scottish Government had to make budgetary decisions within a climate of austerity and with many other competing demands on the public purse from across different policy areas of government and the Scottish Parliament.

Further, in 2018 and 2019, pandemic preparations had to compete with preparations for a possible no-deal departure from the EU for the attention of experienced resilience personnel.

Before leaving this topic I should mention two measures that helped greatly with management of the pandemic. The first is the reform of public health structures. In April 2020 a series of reviews, co-led by the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, or COSLA, culminated in the establishment of Public Health Scotland, and we heard first thing this morning from Mr Bowie, who represents Public Health Scotland. This unique body brought under one roof responsibility for the collection of health-related data, the thinking to address society’s health issues, and the making of improvements to the health system.

Jointly accountable to the Scottish Government and COSLA, the result was a single authoritative source of information and advice, a one-stop shop, if you will, that public and private sector leaders could call upon. This was invaluable during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The second measure that I should mention was a series of protocols for the management of public health incidents including infectious diseases. First published in 2003 and updated thereafter, the Management of Public Health Incidents: Guidance on the Roles and Responsibilities of NHS led Incident Management Teams contained information that NHS boards and local authorities could use when preparing for or in response to a public health or environmental event or incident.

These were well established protocols that were of great practical benefit during the pandemic.

In summary, therefore, my Lady, the Scottish Government has incrementally built on its pandemic resilience capability over many years. It has thought carefully about potential risks and has prepared to the best of its ability. But, of course, the devastating effect of the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that there are many lessons to be learned and improvements that can be made. The Scottish Government has already taken steps to address this, in part through the setting up of the Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness. This is an advisory group bringing together scientists and technical experts to advise the Scottish Government preparing for future risks from pandemics.

Yet it is not only in the field of science where improvements can be made. The pandemic revealed in stark terms that a healthy and prepared nation is one where inequalities are not tolerated. The eradication of inequalities in health and social care and the building of a healthier Scotland has been a priority for the Scottish Government for several years now.

The Christie Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services, from 2011, the Public Bodies (Joint working) (Scotland) Act 2014, and the Review of Public Health in Scotland: Strengthening the Function and re-focusing action for a healthier Scotland, from 2015, are all evidence of the Scottish Government’s commitment in this area.

Yet more remains to be done. We would submit that the candour displayed in the witness statements which have been produced to the Inquiry on behalf of the Scottish government are testament to the Scottish Government’s willingness to listen, to learn and to adapt.

The Scottish Government is grateful to my Lady for the opportunity to make this opening statement. It has been a necessarily brief and high-level overview of the resilience system in Scotland and the pandemic preparation that took place. We hope it has been of assistance to the Inquiry, but we also hope that to those listening and watching the Inquiry process it has provided some insight into some areas that they may not have heretofore known about.

My team and I hope that we can be of assistance to my Lady and to her team in the weeks to come. Thank you.

Lady Hallett: Thank you very much indeed.

We’ll break now. I shall return at 11.20.

(11.05 am)

(A short break)

(11.20 am)

Lady Hallett: Right, now we have Mr Sharpe.