Carehomedeaths

The Labour party is rightly attempting to get to the truth about the effect of the pandemic on care home and NHS workers.

The SNP owe it to the families directly affected and to the wider public to confirm the exact number of deaths occasioned and to establish whether the shortages of PPE were a factor.

Getting to the truth may prove difficult. If the Crown Office is to undertake an investigation it is to be hoped that it is not subject to a "communications framework" such as that imposed upon Public Health Scotland (PHS).

It stipulates that any communications likely to "challenge or [which] could be interpreted as a critique of - Scottish government policy", must be "risk managed" with a view to reducing potential impact on the reputation and credibility of the organisations."

The effect of this led to the infamous PHS report which stated: "There is no statistical evidence that hospital discharges of any kind were associated with care home outbreaks [of Covid] ".

It was seized upon by Nicola Sturgeon to try to exonerate herself, only to be dismissed by the Office for Statistics Regulation, which provided the truth that "discharges were consistent with a causal relationship between discharges and outbreaks".

It also came to light that Audit Scotland was pressurised by the SNP into removing from their report on PPE the word "shortages", again no doubt in an attempt to conceal the truth from public gaze.

Hopefully the reform of the Crown Office will allow it to operate free of SNP pressure in future.

However, the only way we will get to the truth on this issue and generally on Ms Sturgeon's principal election slogan that she provided "serious leadership" through the pandemic is via an independent judge led public inquiry. COLIN HAMILTON

Edinburgh