5. Submissions on Behalf of Scottish Covid Bereaved by Ms Mitchell KC

Ms Mitchell: My Lady.

My name is Claire Mitchell KC, and along with my colleagues Kevin McCaffery and Kevin Henry, advocates, we are instructed by Aamer Anwar & Company, solicitors, on behalf of the Scottish Covid Bereaved at both the UK and the Scottish public inquiries.

In Module 1 we learnt that, despite expert groups and pandemic planning exercises, we were in no way prepared for the pandemic when it struck the UK. Healthcare workers had, on so many occasions, sounded the alarm that the NHS was already beyond breaking point. Austerity had bitten so hard that the NHS was already mortally wounded.

SARS and MERS outbreaks had not been properly studied. Pandemic exercise groups made recommendations that were never implemented. Myriad groups were set up with abounding acronyms and overlapping duties and responsibilities, yet none seemed to have an overall grasp on pandemic planning.

Brexit put an end to preparations for the inevitable pandemic and no proper plans were put in place at all for health, economic and the social impact of a pandemic on the people and on the businesses in the United Kingdom.

In Module 2 the Scottish Covid Bereaved want to find out how the lack of preparation and resilience affected the decisions of our politicians and civil servants faced with the onslaught of a pandemic.

This module will need to explore the UK Government’s relationship, or lack thereof, with the Scottish Government. It will be equally important to have this investigated from the Scottish Government perspective in Module 2A.

We will, of course, hear first from the Prime Ministers, the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his then Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Dominic Cummings, and many more who had key roles to play in the decisions made by the UK Government.

We must also hear from those who made decisions in the Scottish Government to understand their role and what part they took in the decision-making process.

From what we have so far read, it is clear that constitutional strife, petty squabbles, territorial power struggles, dictated decision-making rather than the needs of people facing death on a devastating scale.

From that substantial disclosure received so far, including the controversial WhatsApps, there has managed to be prised open a Pandora’s box at the heart of government in the critically early days of the pandemic. It reveals a government in crisis, scared and slow to act on expert advice, devoid of the relevant data needed to make critical decisions and significantly crawling behind other countries in protecting its population. As we now know of the thousands who died, there may have been those who could have been saved.

Senior Counsel to the Inquiry has in great detail highlighted that it will be important to closely examine the early days of the pandemic, and he has taken care this morning to set out what will be examined. I would like just briefly to look at a snapshot of that time.

By 24 February the World Health Organisation published a report of its mission to Wuhan, advising countries to immediately activate the highest level of national response management protocols to ensure that the all of government and all of society approaches needed to contain Covid-19 with non-pharmaceutical public health measures were implemented. Yet it was not until one month later, on 23 March, that lockdown was declared.

On 26 May 2021, Dominic Cummings, once at the heart of Boris Johnson’s government, gave evidence about what had been described as a crucial time, that being between Thursday 12 March and Sunday 15 March. It has been disclosed that at 7.48 on 12 March Dominic Cummings sent a text to the Prime Minister saying:

“We’ve got big problems coming. The Cabinet Office is terrifyingly shit. No plans. Totally behind the pace. We must announce today, not next week, if you feel ill with cold or flu stay home. Some around the system want to delay because they haven’t done the work. We must force the pace. We are looking at between 100 to 500,000 deaths between optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. You’ve got to chair the daily meetings in the Cabinet Room, not COBR.”

Mr Cummings has gone on to explain that the COBR system could not work as they couldn’t get all the data in properly.

Now, my Lady, having looked at that data, it was clear that the tsunamic effect of the lack of preparation was about to hit the UK shores. By Friday 13 March 2020 it was clear that the data showed that, even on the best case scenario, the NHS was going to become completely overwhelmed.

On 14 March Dominic Cummings said to the Prime Minister, “You’re going to have to lock down but there is no lockdown plan, it does not exist, SAGE haven’t modelled it, the Department of Health and Social Care don’t have a plan”.

So, as we see in the many thousands of pages disclosed in evidence to us, that despite advice from the World Health Organisation on 24 February, despite knowing the experience of other countries where Covid had already taken a grip, despite 16 March being the date SAGE eventually advised the government to embark on a lockdown, it was not until 23 March 2020 that the government announced it.

Where case numbers were doubling every three days, every minute counted, never mind every day. What was happening between those days, those hours, those minutes? Those are the questions that, my Lady, you will have to answer.

There is a very difficult balancing act between listening to all those who were affected and finding out from those who were in charge exactly what happened. As noted by the Chair in her opening statement, given the inevitability of a future pandemic, we don’t have the opportunity to call every witness affected. However, on listening to the Scottish Covid Bereaved, and to some of those people who we heard this morning, three requests appear again and again to emerge. Those are for answers, for accountability and, where due and sincerely made, for apologies.

The Scottish Covid Bereaved want to know the truth of what took place in those early days, to know about the decisions which directly impacted the death of their loved ones. Without truth, lessons cannot be learned, and without truth there can be no justice.

For the Scottish Covid Bereaved the knowledge of what happened cannot take away their grief, but it may, when analysed by this Inquiry, save the lives of many in the next pandemic to come. This, at the very least, is the legacy that they are entitled to expect.

These are the submissions on behalf of the Scottish Covid Bereaved.

Lady Hallett: Very grateful indeed, thank you, Ms Mitchell.

Right, now, I think Ms Shepherd, you’re standing in for Ms Harris, who’s sadly got Covid, I gather. I hope she gets better soon.