Medical chief who broke lockdown rules excused from Covid inquiry evidence

A top medical adviser who quit after breaking lockdown rules to visit her second home won’t be giving evidence to the Covid inquiry “due to ill health”.

Catherine Calderwood was Scotland’s chief medical officer from 2015 until she was forced to resign in April 2020 after being caught making two trips from Edinburgh to Fife.

But despite her key role in the early stages of the devolved administration’s pandemic response, she has been told she will not have to give evidence to the official probe into the crisis.

According to documents on the inquiry’s website, Calderwood wrote to inquiry chair Heather Hallett in November asking to be excused “due to ill health”.

After reviewing a “detailed medical report” submitted with the request, Hallett concluded Calderwood would not be required to attend hearings “for the foreseeable future”.

Calderwood’s former deputy and her successor as Scotland’s chief medical officer, Gregor Smith, appeared before the inquiry today, where he was grilled over his handling of so-called “informal communications” during the pandemic.

The inquiry has heard he and other top figures in the Scottish government, including former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, were advised to regularly delete WhatsApp messages.

Calderwood gave evidence to the inquiry’s opening module on the UK’s preparations for a pandemic last year, revealing plans to improve the availability of PPE (personal protective equipment) for health workers stalled during the initial stages of the outbreak.

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