Covid public inquiry could take years

Yes to a Public Inquiry But No to Publishing Minutes of Covid Coordinating Group Meetings

The government have twice announced it has agreed that a public inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic would be established, but only after the Covid-19 public health emergency has come to an end.

No 6 has also confirmed the objective (of the inquiry) would be to understand what was done right and what was done wrong, and also where they could have done better. The Government adding that it is yet to determine whether this will be a judge led inquiry or whether it will be led by external medical and public health experts, or indeed a combination of the two.

Last Monday, at the weekly press conference at No 6 I asked the Chief Minister, pointing out that that the previous day the UK Government had placed in the public domain minutes of the UK advisory group SAGE meetings.

I asked the CM, if government had plans to do the same with the public in Gibraltar, he replied, ‘as I have said before, we will be holding a public enquiry into how the health emergency has been dealt with, but this is not yet over’. Which is another decision, that members of the public find incredible difficulty to accept!

Minutes, taken at these vitally important meetings outline the scientific and health issues discussed and actions and advice agreed during each meeting of the group during the Covid pandemic!

The UK SAGE group is responsible for providing the UK Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBR) meetings with coherent, coordinated advice and to interpret complex or uncertain scientific evidence in non technical language. The UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser (GCSA) and Chief Medical Officer (CMO) represent  SAGE at COBR. SAGE usually convenes in advance of COBR. Ministers receive advice from SAGE in the form of written minutes, as well as verbal contributions from the GCSA and  CMO in COBR and other ministerial meetings.

Much, like I presume, with the equivalent working practices of the Gibraltar Covid coordinating advisory group(s) meetings?

UK SAGE minutes also outline the scientific and health issues discussed and actions and advice agreed throughout each meeting of the group during the Covid-19 pandemic. The UK group have been meeting regularly (twice a week) since January when it convened for the first time two weeks ago, and because of the exceptional nature of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Historically, minutes taken at SAGE meetings, whatever the emergency, along with the evidence used to inf-orm SAGE advice, have always been published at the end of any event or emergency.

The British government, SAGE and other members, in efforts to ensure there is as much available evidence and material as possible to the general public, principally, so there is full transparency on how science advice is being formulated from the start. And why, the decision taken to publish minutes from over 30 SAGE meetings which was published for public scrutiny on the UK Gov website (see pic). The website notes, that other minutes of meetings that have taken place which contain sensitive information, where policy advice still under live consideration, will be published in the coming weeks.

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08-06-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR