THE SNP have slammed as "puerile" the Tory and Labour response to the Scottish Government announcement that a public inquiry on the pandemic would get under way later this year.

Both opposition parties accused ministers of taking longer to establish the probe than Nicola Sturgeon had said ahead of the Holyrood election.

Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Annie Wells MSP commented: “It seems that the SNP will finally start listening to grieving families and respect the will of a Scottish Parliament vote last year, when the Scottish Conservatives won cross-party support for an urgent Scottish Covid inquiry.

“It’s a disgrace that they are only getting around to this now, when Nicola Sturgeon promised it would be a priority during the election campaign.

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“This inquiry must uncover what went wrong throughout the pandemic, especially in our care homes. Major errors were made by the SNP Government that left our most vulnerable citizens unprotected."

Labour leader Anas Sarwar also hit out over the timing of the inquiry.

"This is shameful from the SNP government. Despite promising the people of Scotland that a Scottish-specific inquiry was on the SNP’s 100-day list, the SNP has shown that it simply is not a priority for them.

“They are dragging their feet, ignoring the pain of the grieving families and sacrifices of thousands of key workers."

He added: “The First Minister must end the dither and delay and act now so that light can be shone on the Scottish Government’s handling of the pandemic, lessons can be learned, and justice can be done.”

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But SNP MSP Emma Harper hit back saying that the Scottish Government was keeping its manifesto promises.

"The only disgraceful or shameful thing about this announcement is the opposition parties' puerile reaction to it," she said.

“Once again the SNP Scottish Government has made good on its commitment to bring forward in its first 100 days proposals for a Covid enquiry.

"This manufactured grievance is yet more shameless hypocrisy from the Scots Tories whose bosses in the Westminster Government are delaying their own inquiry.

"Douglas Ross's party has nothing positive to offer beyond increasingly desperate false attacks on the SNP's record in delivering our manifesto promises.

"And it comes as no surprise that increasingly irrelevant Labour has joined the Tories pointlessly whining from the sidelines while the SNP get on with the task of rebuilding Scotland and preparing for a referendum for recovery."

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon today confirmed the Scottish Government will begin an independent inquiry into the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic by the end of the year.

She said the judge-led inquiry would have a "person-centred, human rights-based" approach.

A draft of aims and principles for the inquiry was published today, with members of the public invited to comment until September 30.

Sturgeon spoke at a coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh shortly after the publication.

She said of the inquiry: "I can confirm it will be established by the end of this year, as promised, and it will take a person-centred, human rights-based approach."

Scotland's top prosecutor, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain QC, had begun discussions about appointing a judge to lead the inquiry, the First Minister added.

"It is fully our intention that this will be a judge-led inquiry," Sturgeon said.

"The inquiry will look at all matters related to the handling of the pandemic that are within our devolved competence, this will include of course the situation in our care homes."

But she stressed the Scottish Government would "liaise closely" with the UK Government and other devolved administrations on the likely terms of a UK-wide inquiry.

"It will be important to avoid duplication and overlap," Sturgeon said.

She added: "However, the need for co-operation with other governments is not, in my view, a reason to delay the establishment of our own inquiry."

The First Minister said the public inquiry would help to identify lessons to learn for the future as well as looking at decisions taken earlier in the pandemic.

Speaking at today's coronavirus briefing, Sturgeon gave an assurance that the Scottish Government would comply fully with the inquiry after being challenged about its record of transparency, including with regards to the Salmond Committee.

She said: "As the leader of a government over these past 18 months, I mean this really, really strongly, I desperately want every appropriate lesson from what we've gone through to be learned so that any future government that is in a similar situation has the benefit of that learning."