PRESS RELEASE – 24 AUGUST 2023 – SCOTTISH COVID-19 PUBLIC INQUIRY PRELIMINARY HEARING – MONDAY 28 AUGUST 2023 AT MURRAYFIELD STADIUM
PRESS RELEASE – 24 AUGUST 2023
SCOTTISH COVID-19 PUBLIC INQUIRY
PRELIMINARY HEARING – MONDAY 28 AUGUST 2023 AT MURRAYFIELD STADIUM
The Scottish Covid Bereaved expected to deliver damning indictment at press conference at start of the Inquiry.
Press statement by Aamer Anwar- Lead Solicitor on behalf of Scottish Covid Bereaved.
The Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry will officially begin on Monday 28th August with its first Preliminary Hearing at 10am and run until approximately 4:15pm.
Proceedings will take place in the Thistle Suite of Murrayfield Stadium, Roseburn Street, Edinburgh, EH12 5PJ. The access point is on the West Stand of the stadium.
The Preliminary Hearing is an opportunity for the Inquiry to explain how it will go about its work and will lead to the first set of substantive hearings, set to begin in late October 2023. These hearings will focus on the impacts of the COVID-19 response, and of the pandemic itself, on the people of Scotland.
The Inquiry has divided its investigation into three themes: health and social care; education and young people; and business, finance, and welfare.
The Preliminary Hearing and substantive hearings in October will focus on the health and social care impacts of COVID-19, with the impact hearings for the other themes to follow in later months.
The Preliminary Hearing is designed to share with core participants, and the wider public, how Lord Brailsford, Chair to the Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry, intends to run future substantive hearings.
The Scottish Covid Bereaved of which there will be around 60 present on the day will hold a press conference in the Centenary Club of Murrayfield Stadium in the Inquiry lunch hour (approximately 1pm) which can be accessed via the West Stand towards the North corner.
There will be an opportunity for one-to-one interviews with members of Scottish Covid Bereaved.
Nearly 200 attendees are confirmed for the preliminary hearing at Murrayfield, from 37 different core participant groups. We understand a notice to media for accreditation at Murrayfield was sent by the Inquiry in late July.
Any media representatives interested in attending hearings should contact the Inquiry’s communications team via media@covid19inquiry.scot. Updates are also published on the Inquiry website: Latest News | Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry (covid19inquiry.scot).
Photography and videography will not be permitted in the main hearing room in order to respect the privacy of all those attending. The preliminary hearing will be screened live on the Inquiry’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@covidinquirysco/
Lord Brailsford Chair of the Inquiry said last month in a report on STV News:
“On the 28th August… we will have a further hearing… and the focus will then shift from the science to the people affected by the virus and the strategic response to the virus. On those days, we will hold we consider to be our official Preliminary Hearing and that will constitute a formal opening to the Inquiry’s evidence gathering and hearings to follow – which I think again as you all know will commence late in October. At that stage in August, there will be an opportunity for core participants to the Inquiry including of course bereaved families, care home relatives, and others affected to participate.
Aamer Anwar stated:
“On Monday it is anticipated that unless the Covid Bereaved hear of real change, they will be damning in their criticism of the Scottish Inquiry. In the last year this Inquiry has spent nearly £8 million- so the very least the families were entitled to expect was a gold plated and fearless inquiry, no different to the UK Inquiry, sadly their experience has been the exact opposite, one of a shambolic, embarrassing and third rate inquiry. The families we represent were promised firstly by the Scottish Government, then the first chair who resigned, followed by Lord Brailsford, that they would be front and centre of a robust and independent Public Inquiry, shamefully that has not happened.”
