The First Minister says she believes the government’s use of outside consultants to bolster test and protect systems during the pandemic has been appropriate – but she hopes external commissioning is something that will be scrutinised in any future inquiry into the handling of the crisis.

Nicola Sturgeon was giving evidence to Holyrood’s Covid-19 Committee on the same day a report by Westminster’s Public Accounts Committee said taxpayers were being ‘treated like an ATM machine’ in having to meet the £37bn bill for the NHS England Test and Trace system, which had had ‘no clear impact’ on its aim of preventing lockdown south of the border.

The report said much of the spending went to external consultants – some of whom were paid more than £6,600 a day.

The First Minister told MSPs that, although she had not had a chance to read the Westminster report, the approach taken by the UK and Scottish governments to Test and Trace and Test and Protect, respectively, were very different:

“What Test and Protect does, the purpose of it and the fundamentals of how it works, are very similar to Test and Trace in England.

“But we built Test and Protect effectively from the bottom up, from our pre-existing very localised public health teams and the much more limited contact tracing capability that we had in place.

“We didn’t build the whole brand-new almost sitting-outside-the-NHS system that has been done in England.”

A row erupted between opposition parties and government in October last year when it emerged a call centre firm has been brought in to bolster the Test and Protect system in Scotland.

After it emerged only 800 out of a promised 2,000 contact tracers had been recruited, the government contracted external capacity in a deal worth £1.3m, despite promising contact tracing was “never” outsourced.

The First Minister told the Holyrood Committee today there were times, particularly over the last year, when the Scottish government had needed the support of consultants to supplement their own in-house capacity so they could get Test and Protect and, later, the vaccination programme up and running quickly:

“We use consultants I think appropriately. Some would say too often and I am very mindful of that in normal times as well.”

Ms Sturgeon said help did not just come from consultants, pointing to the logistical and advisory support given by the Armed Forces.

“I think that given the challenge that we faced, that was necessary and appropriate but it is one of the many things that will deserve proper, detailed scrutiny and accountability when, hopefully in the not too distant future, we are at the point of looking back on this pandemic and not still living through it.”

Read more: NHS Scotland £60m call centre deal revealed; FM: Contact tracing “never” outsourced; Call centre firm brought in to bolster Test & Protect

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