Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry Newsletter: Issue 6 (Autumn-Winter 2023)

The Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry’s public participation project, Let’s Be Heard, has published its first report, Let’s Be Heard: Sharing Respondents’ Pandemic Experiences, Impacts, and Lessons to be Learned in Scotland.

The publication shares preliminary findings from responses received since the start of the project’s national engagement phase on 23 May 2023. Let’s Be Heard is urging people across Scotland to share their experiences of the pandemic before the project’s national engagement phase ends on 20 December 2023.

Those who take part will be asked three core questions:

1. What were your experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic?
2. What impact did these experiences have on you or people you know?
3. What lessons do you think should be learned from your experiences?

The Inquiry is investigating Scotland’s devolved strategic response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To help inform its investigations and recommendations, the Inquiry is inviting anyone who was in Scotland, or affected by decisions made in Scotland, between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2022 to share their experiences through Let’s Be Heard. 

More than 4,000 people have already shared their experiences of the pandemic, and the lessons they believe should be learned so that Scotland is better prepared in future.

Before the end of its national engagement phase, Let’s Be Heard would like to hear more from some specific groups across Scotland, including:

• men;
• people from minority ethnic communities;
• LGBTQ+ people;
• people from minority religious communities;
• people aged under 20 and over 70; and
• people who don’t feel financially secure.

And from people living in: 

• North and South Lanarkshire;
• Renfrewshire;
• Glasgow City;
• West Lothian; and
• Highlands and Islands.

Anyone who does not fit into any of the above groups but would like to share their experience can still do so by visiting the Let’s Be Heard website. 

You do not need to have had COVID-19 to take part, however you must have lived in Scotland, or been affected by the decisions made in Scotland during the period the Inquiry is investigating.

The first tranche of the Inquiry’s health and social care impact hearings began in October in Edinburgh.

Pausing in mid-December to allow for the UK Covid-19 Inquiry to start its Scotland hearings in January, the Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry will continue with its second tranche of impact hearings in March 2024.

The Inquiry’s hearings can be viewed via the Inquiry website or the Inquiry’s YouTube channel and witness statements, as well as transcripts, can also be found on the Inquiry’s website. 

The Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry has adopted a thematic approach to its hearings, giving priority to evidence from those most impacted by the pandemic in Scotland.

The three themes are:

• Health and social care;
• Education and young people; and
• Business, finance and welfare.

The Inquiry will first look at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic across all these themes, before moving to examining the implementation of measures, and finally, key-decision making. 

After completing its impact hearings on health and social care, the Inquiry will move to impact hearings on education and young people. For more information on the Inquiry’s hearing structure, please visit the Hearings section of the website.