PRESS RELEASE – 11th OCTOBER 2022 – SCOTTISH COVID19 BEREAVED FAMILIES FOR JUSTICE TO MEET WITH DEPUTY FIRST MINISTER, FOLLOWING THE RESIGNATION OF THE INQUIRY CHAIR LADY POOLE

PRESS RELEASE – 11^th OCTOBER 2022

SCOTTISH COVID19 BEREAVED FAMILIES FOR JUSTICE TO MEET WITH DEPUTY FIRST MINISTER, FOLLOWING THE RESIGNATION OF THE INQUIRY CHAIR LADY POOLE

AT 2PM, PRESS CONFERENCE OUTSIDE AT 3PM

Statement by Aamer Anwar on behalf of the Scottish Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice.

At 2pm on Wednesday 12^th of October 2022 our legal team along members of the Scottish Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice will meet with the Deputy First Minister John Swinney MSP at St Andrew’s House, 2 Regent Road, EH1 3DG.

In attendance will be lead solicitors Aamer Anwar and April Meechan.

Present on behalf of the bereaved families will be Dr Alan Wightman, Carolyn Murdoch, Peter McMahon and Maggie Waterton.

We are the only lawyers from Scotland representing bereaved Scottish families at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry which held its first Preliminary Hearing in London on the 4^th October

Ahead of Hearing 1 it was announced that in Scotland the Chair of the Scottish Inquiry, Lady Poole, had resigned for ‘personal reasons’, however following this it was learned that four senior lawyers had also resigned from her inquiry team prior to her doing so.

We will meet with the Scottish government to seek answers, following which there will be a short press conference outside around 3pm.