5. Submissions on Behalf of Scottish Covid Bereaved by Mr Mccaffery

Mr McCaffery: Thank you, my Lady.

My Lady, I am instructed by Aamer Anwar & Company on behalf of Scottish Covid Bereaved this morning. Scottish Covid Bereaved are once again grateful to the Inquiry for being included as a designated core participant in Module 5. We’re also grateful to counsel to the Inquiry for providing a detailed note setting out the matters which are to be addressed at this first preliminary hearing in Module 5.

Module 5 is, of course, of significant importance to the members of Scottish Covid Bereaved, who had firsthand experience of the widespread lack of availability of personal protective equipment, or PPE, during the course of at least the early stages of the pandemic, and, in many cases, can corroborate many of the stories of not only a lack of availability, but also other healthcare-related equipment and supplies, including ventilators and oxygen.

Scottish Covid Bereaved members are keen to find answers to all of the issues raised, and particularly with regard to procurement, availability and use of lateral flow tests and free PCR tests.

The members of Scottish Covid Bereaved have significant experience and perspectives to share with the Inquiry as end users of all of such equipment and supplies and as firsthand witnesses to its use within hospitals and care home environments.

Scottish Covid Bereaved as a group has a wide and varied membership, which includes doctors, paramedics and carers in both care home and community settings, as well as those who cared for loved ones in domestic settings.

Members of Scottish Covid Bereaved whose loved ones died in care homes and hospitals will, along with the bereaved from the other nations, be able to provide the Inquiry with a wealth of information on what was happening on the ground, as it were, and within those environments.

The issues surrounding testing are also of great importance to Scottish Covid Bereaved members. The impact of the lack of testing of patients being discharged from hospitals and transferred to care homes is a matter which, as your Ladyship is aware, was raised in Module 2A in the last few weeks, and how this failure to test fuelled the spread of the virus to vulnerable residents in care homes and led to the deaths of many of the group’s members’ relatives. Had testing been identified and utilised earlier in the pandemic, this would have allowed staff to have identified Covid positive residents and to take steps to minimise the spread of virus within care homes. This is an issue of great significance for Scottish Covid Bereaved members who lost loved ones in those situations.

Further, had testing been widespread in those early stages of the pandemic, members of Scottish Covid Bereaved would have been more likely to have been able to visit their loved ones in the last hours rather than leaving them alone, isolated, and often confused as to their situation.

We note that the scope of Module 5 does indeed appear ambitious, and Scottish Covid Bereaved members will endeavour to assist the Inquiry in meeting its objectives throughout in its disclosure, expert reporting, and the eventual hearings.

The scope of the module is, of course, necessarily provisional at this stage, and much will depend on the evidence and material obtained during the Rule 9 procedure. Counsel to the Inquiry has helpfully set out at paragraph 16 of his note some of the questions that the Inquiry is likely to consider in Module 5.

Other questions which the Inquiry may wish to consider from the Scottish perspective, and which are, of course, important to Scottish Covid Bereaved, have been identified at this stage, and include: what was the interaction between the procurement responsibilities of the Scottish Government and the United Kingdom Government? Were the relevant teams in the UK Government and devolved administrations properly and effectively operating and communicating with each other or were they in competition with each one another in a desperate scramble for supplies? What assistance were medical and caring staff given to secure adequate personal protective equipment? And the role of the NHS Louisa Jordan temporary hospital facility and whether this could have been set up and utilised at an earlier stage in the pandemic, and where patients discharged from mainstream hospitals may have been accommodated rather than to care homes, with all of the dangers which we now know surrounded that decision.

Although I do note from Mr Wald’s submissions this morning that the establishment, funding, location, staffing and operation of the Nightingale hospitals are to be addressed in Module 3, healthcare systems, and it is hoped and anticipated that the NHS Louisa Jordan Hospital will also be included in that module.

Scottish Covid Bereaved also very much share the significant concerns referred to in the submissions from the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition in relation to the questions surrounding the use of the “VIP lane” and the seemingly close relationships between those succeeding in gaining contracts for the supply of PPE and those politicians recommending the award of those contracts.

Turning to disclosure, my Lady, Scottish Covid Bereaved note all that is contained in counsel to the Inquiry’s note in that regard. Members of the group look forward to the commencement of the disclosure procedure, and are obviously limited in terms of the submissions that they can make until such times as the results of that process are known and distributed to core participants.

It was obvious from the difficulties, highlighted in Module 2A in the last few weeks, that the Inquiry faced in obtaining certain evidence from the Scottish Government in that module that the recovery of evidence is often far from straightforward, and while we are sure that the Inquiry will continue to make every effort to obtain all relevant evidence, it is to be hoped that every effort will be made to ensure a level of compliance in response to Rule 9 Requests from all core decision-makers across the four nations, which meets the high expectations of all of the core participants.

It is further hoped and anticipated by Scottish Covid Bereaved members that disclosure in Module 5 will include details in relation to the apparent PPE hotline established by the Scottish Government, and referred to in the evidence of the then Scottish Health Minister Jeane Freeman in Module 1. While it perhaps did not appear to some to be the most efficient use of time to senior government ministers, to be answering telephone calls about the availability or otherwise of personal protective equipment, Scottish Covid Bereaved look forward to this matter being explored in greater detail in Module 5.

One particular area of concern, and one which has also been raised by other core participants, is the timing of disclosure and its likely availability to core participants. As core participants are now accustomed to, there is inevitably a vast amount of material to be considered in any module, and it is anticipated that that amount will potentially be even greater, given the intended scope of Module 5.

Accordingly, there is some apprehension that the timing of the disclosure of documents will leave core participants and their legal representatives with insufficient time to properly consider all of the materials. It is therefore to be hoped that all disclosures will be made available as quickly as possible to allow sufficient time for adequate preparation to be made for the substantive hearings in early 2025.

We’re again grateful to Mr Wald for indicating this morning that disclosure is now anticipated to begin in late spring of this year.

In relation to expert reports, my Lady, Scottish Covid Bereaved note that, as with previous modules, the Inquiry intends to instruct a number of expert reports across various disciplines to assist it by providing written reports, and giving oral evidence at a public hearing.

We’ll have further submissions to make once the identity of the experts and the questions and issues they will be asked to address are disclosed to core participants.

At this stage, we would simply submit that it is hoped that all such experts will have sufficient and the requisite expertise in relation to those matters concerning Scotland and the Scottish Government.

Finally, turning to Every Story Matters, my Lady, Scottish Covid Bereaved note that the Inquiry’s research specialists are exploring opportunities to conduct targeted qualitative research in relation to particular topics based on the lines of inquiry. We note that the key lines of inquiry are identified by counsel to the Inquiry in his note, and that those relate to the procurement processes and decisions made by the United Kingdom Government.

Again, to echo previous core participants’ submissions this morning, Scottish Covid Bereaved hope that the research to be carried out by the Inquiry does not exclude the impact of procurement processes and decisions made by the Scottish Government, and the other devolved administrations.

It may be that the Inquiry further wishes to carry out research in relation to the impact of those decisions on patients, residents in care homes, and their loved ones. It is in these areas that we believe that the members of Scottish Covid Bereaved and those of the other bereaved families groups will have a great deal to offer to assist the Inquiry in achieving its aims, and we anticipate that many members of Scottish Covid Bereaved will wish to participate in the Every Story Matters exercise.

Further, we note submissions in relation to potential undertakings regarding criminal investigations and/or proceedings in respect of evidence provided to the Inquiry, and likely opposition to such and any assertions of the privilege against self-incrimination.

We would reserve our position on that matter until such times as further information becomes available.

Those are the submissions on behalf of Scottish Covid Bereaved this morning, my Lady, and unless I can be of any further assistance?

Lady Hallett: No, thank you very much, Mr McCaffery. May I repeat my apology that there are references to HMG. We should have made it clear in what was said that we include the devolved nations and, as I say, I’m extremely sorry that wasn’t made clear. I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that everyone knows throughout the Inquiry that when we’re talking about investigating fully, we mean each of the devolved nations and the United Kingdom Government. So thank you very much for your assistance.

Mr McCaffery: I’m grateful, my Lady.

Lady Hallett: Right, Mr Dayle.