THE UK Government’s approach to removing lockdown restrictions during the pandemic “undermined” the more cautious policies of the Scottish Government, the chief of Scotland’s largest trade union body told the Covid Inquiry.
The probe into how officials in Westminster and devolved administrations, including Holyrood, made decisions during the pandemic is holding hearings in Edinburgh over the next three weeks.
The UK Covid Inquiry will focus on methods employed by Scottish ministers between early January 2020 and April 2022, when the remaining Covid-19 restrictions were lifted in Scotland.
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Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon is among politicians expected to give evidence in the coming weeks.
On Wednesday, Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) general secretary Roz Foyer gave evidence on the impact decisions made by ministers had on workers in Scotland.
Asked about her views on the approach taken to returning workers to offices during the first easing of restrictions in the summer of 2020, after the first lockdown, Foyer criticised policies implemented by Westminster.
She added that the STUC had criteria set out for workers to return to offices around testing and safety guidance being put in place for several sectors.
“There were some areas where we had concerns that things were moving too quickly but I think overall we were quite critical of the approach being taken at the time by the UK Government, which we felt in some ways was undermining the more cautious approach of the Scottish Government, and that mixed signalling a could be quite confusing to the public in Scotland,” Foyer told the inquiry.
“We had times where the Scottish Government were saying that only certain types of workplace should be coming back and there was a very gradual loosening of the restrictions, keeping a very close eye on the numbers of cases and those levels.
“And at the same time, we had announcements coming out of the UK Government you know, the Eat Out to Help Out scheme and other things that were taking place where Boris Johnson made announcements about all non-essential workplaces, people should get back to work and get back into city centres.
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“So there were a lot of differences there that we were really concerned about.”
Foyer added that the STUC were “critical when we felt things were going too fast”, such as when the Scottish Government relaxed social distancing from two metres to one in July 2020.
“Overall, we were very engaged with that approach and we feel we were able to influence a more cautious approach by the Scottish Government to opening up,” she added.
We previously told how Rishi Sunak was forced to defend the Eat Out to Help Out scheme at the Covid Inquiry in December, where he insisted the policy helped protect hospitality workers from “devastating” job losses.
The impact the policy had on spreading the virus during the summer of 2020 has been under heavy scrutiny from the probe, with former chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance stating that the scheme was “highly likely” to have fuelled deaths.
Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, is said to have privately referred to the scheme to boost the restaurant industry as “eat out to help out the virus”.
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