Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed that a judge-led Scottish public inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic will begin by the end of the year.
The First Minister said the official investigation wold have a “person centred, human rights based approach”.
Sturgeon said: “I do believe that full public inquiry has an extremely important role to play, both in scrutinising the decisions we took, and indeed to continue to take in the course of the pandemic, but also of course in identifying and learning appropriate lessons for the future. “
“I therefore believe that it is appropriate to start establish that inquiry, as soon as possible now and the process we’ve begun today is an important step towards that.”
Boris Johnson announced that an independent public inquiry into the UK government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is expected to begin in the Spring of 2022, but Sturgeon wants the Scottish investigation to get underway this year.
She called on interested parties, including bereaved families, to get involved in a consultation on the terms of the inquiry and promised that the Scottish investigation would co-ordinate with other devolved governments and the UK inquiry.
Sturgeon said: “We will also liaise closely with the UK Government and other devolved governments on the likely terms of a UK-wide inquiry."
"Where possible, not least to reduce the burden on those who will give evidence to these inquiries, it will be important to avoid duplication and overlap. However, the need for cooperation with other governments is not in my view, a reason to delay the establishment of our own inquiry.”
Sturgeon also confirmed Scotland’s top prosecutor, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain QC, had begun discussions about appointing a judge to lead the inquiry.
The First Minister said there would be full transparency from the Scottish Government on communications between Ministers relating to the pandemic.
She said: "I desperately want every appropriate lesson from what we’ve gone through to be learned, so that any future government, hopefully not for decades to come, but any future government that is in a similar situation has the benefit of that learning.”
This is a breaking news story - we’ll bring you the very latest updates, pictures and video as it happens.
Follow the politics team on Twitter @Record_Politics and the official Daily Record account @Daily_Record - real news in real time.
We’re also on Facebook - your must-see news, features, videos and pictures throughout the day from the Daily Record, Sunday Mail and Record Online
Get all the big headlines, pictures, analysis, opinion and video on the stories that matter to you.
