Start a Coronavirus Inquiry now

As Coronavirus restrictions begin to ease, Liberal Democrats have said that a Coronavirus Inquiry should be set up on day one after the local elections to start learning lessons from the pandemic.

The party believes such an inquiry should make interim reports every six months so that early lessons can start being learned and improvements made to how Scotland continues to respond to the pandemic.

The Inquiry should include public health experts from other countries where the response to the early stages of the pandemic seem to have been more effective - for example New Zealand.

The United Kingdom has had one of the highest per capita death rates in the entire world. We know that in part this was due to major errors surrounding the handling of care homes, shortages of PPE and a lack of capacity for testing and contact tracing.

"As coronavirus restrictions start to ease again, we must put recovery first and ensure the same mistakes are never repeated.

"That is why Liberal Democrats are calling for the coronavirus inquiry to be set up on day one after the election so we can start learning lessons now.

"To win back trust, I want to see the inquiry making its first interim report in six months and include experts from countries where the response seems to have been more effective."