Inquiry reopens core participant and funding application process for health and social care investigations

The Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry has reopened its core participant and funding application process for its health and social care investigations.

The Inquiry is inviting concurrent core participant and funding applications from parties with an interest in health and social care. These can be submitted until 11.59pm on 14 April 2023. After the closing date, the Inquiry will consider the applications and notify applicants of its decisions.

The core participant and funding application process will be reopened again later this year to invite applications from parties with an interest in the Inquiry’s work relating to education and young people, and then for those with an interest in business and welfare.

To apply for core participant status, please complete our core participant application form, and to apply for funding please complete our funding application form. More information on how the application processes work and who is eligible to apply can be found in protocols and notices section.

Parties designated by the Inquiry as core participants have some additional rights as explained in the Inquiry’s Core Participant Protocol.

The funding application form is for people or organisations to claim funding from the Inquiry to cover legal expenses. It is not necessary to have a lawyer to participate in the Inquiry’s work, but some people may feel they require the assistance of one to participate fully. If they cannot afford a lawyer, and consider they are eligible to apply, they can ask the Inquiry to assist with the costs of instructing one by applying for funding.

It is not necessary for everyone wishing to be involved in the Inquiry to apply for core participant status. Everyone in Scotland will have the opportunity to be part of the Inquiry and to:

• participate in Let’s Be Heard, the Inquiry’s public participation project;
• keep up to date with the Inquiry’s progress through its website;
• respond to the Inquiry’s requests for written evidence and documentation;
• watch public hearings, which the Inquiry intends to livestream and make available on its website (except for any hearings being held in private);
• read transcripts of hearings and any documents (including expert reports) published on the Inquiry’s website;
• read any witness statements published on the website;
• where invited by the Inquiry, give evidence as a witness at a public hearing; and
• read records and documents published by the Inquiry as part of its investigation, and its reports.