HAROLD Wilson famously described royal commissions as bodies which “took minutes and wasted years”. Nonetheless he established no fewer than 11 of them, dealing with subjects as diverse as gambling and local government.

The last one in the UK (Australia still has a fondness for setting them up) was asked by Tony Blair to consider House of Lords reform and reported more than two decades ago, though the current Tory government made an as-yet-unfulfilled manifesto commitment in 2019 to establish one on the criminal justice system.

There is a difference between such commissions and public inquiries – royal commissions tend to be wider-ranging and deal with future rather than past policy – but the idea that there should be some independent and objective structure able to examine important issues that have challenged government, seek to understand processes and actions, attribute fault and make recommendations for future policy is in itself not a bad one.

Politicians should be scrutinised regarding their decisions and affected citizens have a right to know what caused them and their loved ones to suffer, and why. Lord MacLean’s inquiry into the C. difficile outbreaks at the Vale of Leven Hospital, which resulted in at least 34 deaths, is a case in point, as is the current hospitals inquiry being chaired by Lord Brodie which was announced in November 2019.

READ MORE: Mark Drakeford criticises UK Government decision to relax Covid rules amid new variant

Indeed it was as a result of meeting some of those who had been traumatised by their experiences that turned me, in my last months as education secretary, into a strong proponent of a public inquiry into child sex abuse in Scotland which was eventually set up in 2015.

That inquiry, under Lady Smith, continues to meet and has just issued another of its “case study” findings, this time regarding the actions of successive governments with regard to the establishment of an inquiry which it robustly criticises.

However, the inquiry itself, which recently moved premises, shows no sign of coming to an end and it could be almost a full decade in existence.

Meanwhile, the inquiry into the Edinburgh trams debacle – being chaired by Lord Hardie, another distinguished judge – which was set up slightly before Lady Smith’s inquiry and finished taking evidence some years ago, has still not set a date for publishing its final report. Such lengthy timescales, no matter how necessary, can frustrate many of those involved and the costs involved are also concerning. The Brodie inquiry is publishing its figures in a very transparent manner but it is a bit of shock to realise that it has already cost £3.5 million whilst the bill to date for the Child Abuse inquiry is more than £50m, which works out at more than £33,000 a day.

No price should be too high to pay for justice but is important to recognise that judge-led inquiries are not the only way to search out the truth.

I was very keen, before leaving the education portfolio, to investigate a more narrative form of inquiry into the awful and institutionalised abuse of so many young people in places which should have been safe for them, and to engage not just lawyers in that activity but psychologists, historians, theologians, teachers and a host of other professionals who could have brought their perspective to bear on the systems and structures in place and on the motivations and activities – including criminal activities – of those involved.

Such an inquiry would have told the story, and telling the story so that the wrong is publicly acknowledged is a key issue in any such process, and particularly for those so badly treated for so long. But it would also have built up a corpus of experience which in time would have fed through to the training and development of all those working with and for young people whilst developing a resource of international importance.

Such an inquiry did not happen but now we are preparing for the establishment of what will be the mother and father of all inquiries – that into the Covid pandemic – it is essential that as a society we think about what we need to get from what will be a massive investment of time, people and money and how we guarantee such outcomes. Doing it in the way we always have won’t do.

Working out the best way forward for this particular and unique task should engage the whole of our Parliament and rise above party politics, so it is a pity that Holyrood is presently in the grip of kneejerk oppositionalism on every topic including Covid.

READ MORE: SNP MP absolutely tears into Jacob Rees-Mogg's mask claims

A side-effect of that unedifying spectacle is that the currency of public inquiries is also being debased, with calls for them every week by opposition MSPs, such as the Tory Edward Mountain who has demanded one into the west coast ferry service even though, as the past chair of a parliamentary committee inquiry into ferries, he knows precisely what the problems are, how long-standing they have been, and how they are now being tackled by a new and determined Transport Minister, Graeme Dey.

The Covid inquiry needs to tell us not just what happened but what we need to put in place to prepare for any future global event – and there will be one – which threatens public health, the operation of our economy and the functioning of our society.

Finding out all the facts and sitting in judgment on them is only one part of that process. It must be capable of looking forward as well as back, and of developing good practice as well as driving out bad.

There is a place for lawyers in that mix, but a place for lots of others too. Is it too much to ask that Douglas Ross, Anas Sarwar and Alex Cole-Hamilton bite their tongues, abandon petty point-scoring and help to work out how that can best be done by all of us, in order to secure a safer future for all of us?