The invoice for Professor Leitch, three different Scottish Authorities officers and former well being Secretary Jeane Freeman got here to £10,532 with the invoice for Professor Leitch’s the most costly. Professor Leitch introduced in March he was leaving the federal government on the finish of April.
Labour MSP Jackie Baillie stated “That is an eye-watering sum of cash and the SNP should clarify why this was crucial.
READ MORE: Covid Inquiry: Scottish Authorities employed authorized agency for officers
“Too usually within the Covid Inquiry the SNP authorities has sought to obscure the reality and canopy up its personal failures, and it has critical inquiries to reply about whether or not that’s what this costly authorized recommendation was for.”
The Scottish a part of the inquiry, held in Edinburgh in January, was overshadowed by controversies surrounding senior Authorities figures, together with former minister Nicola Sturgeon, deletion of their WhatsApp messages throughout Covid.
Ms Sturgeon, her then deputy John Swinney and Professor Leitch all wiped their messages.
One pandemic message that was recovered confirmed Professor Leitch writing: “WhatsApp deletion is a pre-bed ritual.”
READ MORE: The controversies surrounding Jason Leitch’s authorities exit
The inquiry confirmed Mr Thomson, who was director-general for technique and exterior affairs, boasting to colleagues that “believable deniability are my center names”.
He additionally wrote throughout the pandemic: “Simply to remind you (significantly), that is discoverable underneath FOI. Know the place the ‘clear chat’ button is…”.
A freedom of data request has now revealed Professor Leitch and Mr Thomson have been amongst those that obtained assist from the authorized agency Morton Fraser MacRoberts.
Mr Thomson benefited from £1180 value of preparatory work whereas the determine spent on Professor Leitch and Ms Freeman was £3234 and £2500.
Chief medical officer Dr Gregor Smith, who additionally deleted his WhatsApps, benefited from £2700 of assist.
The payments have been paid by the SNP Authorities.
Throughout his proof to the inquiry, Professor Leitch insisted the “pre-bed” remark was “barely flippant”.
He added: “It’s an exaggeration. I didn’t each day delete my WhatsApp.”
The FOI response stated the Authorities and the authorized agency offered “acceptable ranges of assist” to help figures put together for giving proof to the inquiry:
“This assist included the supply of logistical assist, offering reassurances about what to anticipate while giving proof, explaining what a Public Inquiry is and the way it will likely be run and discussing issues raised on behalf of the Inquiry to information the witnesses’ personal preparations for giving proof with out influencing the content material of their proof.”
Individually, cash was additionally spent on charges to a different regulation agency TLT LLP, which offered “impartial authorized illustration” to 3 tutorial witnesses.
These have been former Chief Scientific Advisor Professor Sheila Rowan and Andrew Morris, chair of the Scottish Authorities’s Covid-19 Advisory Group.
One of many group’s members, Professor Stephen Reicher, additionally obtained assist.
Tory MSP Craig Hoy stated: “Leaving apart the justification for the general public being billed £10,000 for authorized recommendation when the Scottish Authorities has its personal in-house authorized division, this raises critical questions over the SNP’s tradition of cover-up.
“Coupled with the shameful, orchestrated mass deletion of WhatsApp messages – which a few of these officers joked about – this revelation begs the query about what they have been making an attempt to cover?
“Those that misplaced family members throughout the pandemic deserve openness and transparency, slightly than the evasion and secrecy that characterised the SNP Authorities’s decision-making.”
A Scottish Authorities spokesperson stated: “In frequent with different public inquiries, the UK Authorities and different devolved administrations, the Scottish Authorities has a duty to supply acceptable assist to these requested to current proof to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry in relation to their position within the Scottish Authorities’s response to the pandemic.”
