Freeman helped block data release
Scotland’s health secretary was central to an intervention in delaying the release of Covid-19 death rates in individual care homes, it can be revealed.
Earlier this month, the scots man revealed a last-gasp intervention from the Scottish Government involving former economy secretary Fi on aHysl op led to the delay of the publicationof the number of c ovid -19 death sin each of scotland’ s care homes for more than threeand-a-half months and until after the Holyrood election in May.
Now further disclosures show Ms Hyslop was not the only minister involved in the intervention. Former health secretaryj ea ne freeman also directed official son how to respond to the impending data publication.
The Scottish Conservatives said the revelations showed the intervention appeared to be a “cynical attempt” to avoid scrutiny,while labour called for full transparency around the issue.
Correspondence released by the scottish government shows Ms Freeman, who stepped away from frontline politics at the Scottish Parliamentary election earlier this year, led the intervention from the government’s side. Emails state that she was concerned “individual care homes … were not aware that this data was being published”.
They continue, stating Ms Freeman asked National Records of Scotland (NRS) to “facilitate discussions with the relevant stakeholders in order to discuss the data that they are publishing with a view to minimising the distress caused to families and care home staff by this information becoming public”.
Confusion within the NRS around ministerial involvement in the decision to publish is also clear.
In one email, the chief executive of the NRS, Paul Lowe, writes: “Can I ask where Ms Freeman is on issue now, following her earlier message to Ms Hyslop i.e. is [redacted] still wishing to seek routes( presumably advice from you and your team) to prevent publication of this information or are we now in the territory of managing how the information is released and engagement with key stakeholders in advance of this ?”
It is not clear who the redacted individual refers to, but it is likely to be either a government official working on behalf of Ms Freeman or the health secretary herself. As previously revealed, this intervention led the NRS to delay publishing the data until after care sector and local council representatives were informed and could submit objections to the information commissioner.
This led directly to a U-turn from the NRS, which chose to continue to fight the release of the data despite being told by legal advisers it was “highly unlikely” it would win. Scottish Conservative social care spokesperson Craig Hoy said the revelation “reinforces” calls for a public inquiry into Covid-19 in Scotland.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "As is clear from the material released, the health secretary was not trying to prevent release of the report, but rightly making sure scottish Government and NRS officials made care homes and their staff aware of its imp ending publication given the distress it could cause to recently bereaved families.”