Sturgeon and Swinney to appear before UK Covid inquiry

Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon and her deputy John Swinney are set to give evidence to the UK Covid inquiry.

They will face questions on how prepared the Scottish government was for the pandemic and how it handled it.

Lawyers representing bereaved families have been calling for all of Ms Sturgeon's unredacted WhatsApp messages to be provided to the inquiry.

She is expected to appear on more than one occasion, with public hearings set to continue until 2026.

Jeane Freeman told the inquiry that health infrastructure was not equipped to cope with the pandemic and PPE supplies came close to running out.

On Wednesday, Ms Freeman - who was the Scottish health secretary from 2018 to 2021 before stepping down as an MSP - was challenged over an Audit Scotland report which found the government had failed to implement recommendations from three pre-pandemic planning exercises.

She said there had "clearly" been persistent issues with distributing personal protective equipment (PPE) to frontline staff but that it had not run out.

The former minister previously admitted she regrets that the Scottish government discharged so many hospital patients into care homes without being tested for the virus.

The inquiry, led by Baroness Heather Hallett, was set up to examine the UK's response to the virus.

It will also look into the impact of the pandemic and the lessons that can be learned for future virus outbreaks.

A separate Scottish inquiry that will look specifically at the impact of the virus north of the border has been hit by delays after its original chairwoman quit for personal reasons and four members of the inquiry's legal team also stood down.

About 227,000 people died in the UK with Covid listed as one of the causes on their death certificate - including more than 17,000 in Scotland - after the first cases were detected early in 2020.

More than 44 million people were estimated to have caught the virus by February 2022.