Following the High Court ruling in England, Scottish first minister John Swinney said that the government tried to create the “safest possible environment” in care homes in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Swinney said that an ongoing inquiry led by Lady Poole into the handling of the pandemic did “not need” to last years, and said it would provide full and proper answers, adding that the Scottish government’s approach was “similar, but not identical” to UK government policy.

On BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show, he said that in the early days of the pandemic, ministers made decisions based on “emerging scientific discussions”.

“At the time, what was trying to be achieved was to try to create the safest environment possible for everyone concerned,” he said.

“We knew from international experience that our hospitals were going to come under enormous pressure.

“The judgement was how can we create – in that context of enormous risk of infection in our hospitals – the safest environment for individuals who had no reason to still be in because they were clinically safe to be supported in a care home or their own home.”

Despite saying it was “fundamental” that criticism of the government’s handling of events should be explored by the inquiry, Swinney pointed to government guidance from March 2020 advising care homes to isolate residents, ensure discharged patients had been clinically assessed, reduce visits and communal activity.

“It is important that all the issues raised, the experience of families who have lost loved ones, are properly and fully examined,” he added.

Swinney said ministers had “faced cross-party pressure” that the Scottish government should encourage patients to be discharged. 

More than half of the elderly hospital patients discharged to nearly 200 Scottish care homes had not been tested for Covid-19 in the early days of the pandemic, which First Minister Nicola Sturgeon later accepted had cost lives.

“I think Lady Poole will be mindful, having met bereaved families herself, of the importance of answers being brought forward as soon as we can be certain of the facts,” he added.

Former Labour MSP Neil Findlay, whose mother was in a care home in early 2020, told the programme it was “basic and common sense” not to send untested people back into care homes.

“I think that’s a shameful situation to put these families in, but I know some of these families will be determined to get justice.”

Scottish Conservative shadow health minister, Craig Hoy MSP, said families deserved answers about government decision making “as quickly as possible”, adding that “only by getting to those facts will they get the justice, and then ultimately the closure that they want, so they can properly grieve the family members that they lost.”