Account must be taken of limitations of devolved powers, actions taken by UK Government and flow of information from UK Government to Scottish Government and the other devolved administrations.

It is critical that assessment is made of statutory relationship between UK Government and Scottish Government not only in terms of health and social care, but also in contingency planning and gathering intelligence from across the world on the emergence and spread of COVID-19 and the implications for the population of Scotland.

It is important to assess the extent to which Scottish Government was party to the same information as UK Government on a real time basis so that they could respond timeously using their devolved powers to protect the population as Scotland.

Did Scottish Government participate in and have access to all of the information arising from Contingency Planning?

Was Scottish Government involved in Operation Cygnet/Cygnus and given access to the findings?

Did Scottish Government know that the assumption made in that exercise of full PPE etc being available was a false premise?

Did Scottish Government have direct access to the WHO, UN and other bodies or was all information filtered via UK Government?

Would Scottish Government have taken different decisions if there had been access to more information?

Would Scottish Government have taken different decisions if it had full powers over border control, airports and ports?

These are all critical points as UK Government had unfettered powers at its disposal, but Scottish Government only partial powers and all of this had a bearing on the impact of the pandemic in Scotland.