Latest news with #UKCovid-19Inquiry
Scotsman
22-05-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Top Scottish conference venue sees 79,000 visitors give £78 million boost to economy
'Our focus has always been to position the EICC as one of the world's leading and most sustainable conference centres' – Marshall Dallas, departing CEO Sign up to our Scotsman Money newsletter, covering all you need to know to help manage your money. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... One of Scotland's largest conference venues has reported record annual revenues after hosting more than 79,000 delegates. Releasing its latest results, the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) posted revenues of £16 million for the year to December 31, 2024, up from £12.8m the year before. It generated a profit of £2.1m last year, while recording an 'economic impact' of £78m, compared with £58m in 2023. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The economic impact figure relates to the direct benefit of conferences and events taking place at the EICC to Edinburgh and the surrounding region and now totals some £930m since the venue opened its doors 30 years ago. EICC chief executive Marshall Dallas is stepping down after a decade at the helm. Picture by Stewart Attwood Photography Last year, major events held at the EICC on the capital's Morrison Street included the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association Investment Conference, the International Electrotechnical General Meeting, and the 36th International Papillomavirus Society (IPVS) Conference. In excess of 79,000 delegates attended events during the 12 months, up by around 4 per cent on the previous year. In total, 164 events were staged at the venue during 2024, down slightly year on year, with delegate days up at around 180,000 against approximately 146,000 in 2023. Lezley Marion Cameron, EICC board chair said: 'The conference and events industry, and the overall business events sector, continues to be a highly competitive market in which the EICC is competing against cities around the UK and across the world. 'The EICC board is therefore delighted to report another year of increased revenue and economic impact for Edinburgh, led by our chief executive Marshall Dallas, our EICC team and our partners. Initiatives by our EICC sales team have also contributed hugely to this success.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Stepping down after a decade at the helm, Dallas said: 'Our focus has always been to position the EICC as one of the world's leading and most sustainable conference centres, with a mission to inspire ideas that change the world. 'While the number of events we held last year was moderately down, delegate days were up due to multi-day conferences, with increased attendance at those events, and we see that as the key metric.' He added: 'UK and international association conference business continues to be core, while we have also continued to diversify the range of events held at the venue. Scotland's leading conference venue also has a strong pipeline of events lined up this year and next.' As the venue looks to mark its 30th anniversary, Cameron said: 'Marshall leaves the EICC following one of the most successful years in our history - a year in which the EICC has also faced serious, significant challenges - testimony to the determination, resilience and resolve of Marshall and the EICC team. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
The Herald Scotland
21-05-2025
- Health
- The Herald Scotland
No evidence of fall in Covid rules compliance after Storey funeral, O'Neill says
The former DUP leader said there was a fall in compliance after Sinn Fein ministers, including Ms O'Neill, attended the large-scale funeral for the senior republican in west Belfast in June 2020, when there were restrictions on social gatherings. 'I don't think that we were slow to promote compliance because day after day at press conferences we were urging the public to comply,' Mrs Foster told the inquiry on Wednesday. 'There was a breakdown in compliance after the attendance of senior members of Sinn Fein at a high-ranking republican funeral at the end of June, which caused severe difficulties in Northern Ireland with compliance and adherence.' Arlene Foster gave evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry (PA) She said that despite efforts made, including working with the PSNI and giving money to councils to employ Covid marshals, there was 'a difficulty which still hung over the Executive' around non-compliance because of the Storey funeral. Asked about Mrs Foster's comments, Ms O'Neill told the inquiry: 'I think, unfortunately, I believe Arlene Foster raised that issue again today in the inquiry because the comments are politically motivated. 'I don't believe there is any evidence that suggests that actually is the case.' Ms O'Neill apologised for having attended the funeral at the Covid inquiry in 2024. Northern Ireland chief medical officer Michael McBride told the inquiry there was no evidence to support the claim that compliance dropped as a result of the Storey funeral. 'From a purely scientific and public health perspective, I'm not aware of any evidence that that's the case,' he said. 'I think the major driver of the increase in cases throughout that summer, into September, into October, were the relaxations in the non-pharmaceutical measures, which had been agreed by the Executive, that's what led to the increase in transmission. 'There was more mixing with more people coming together in a range of environments, and that led to an increase in the pandemic.' Earlier on Wednesday, Mrs Foster said it was 'inhumane' that people had to die alone during the Covid-19 pandemic. The former DUP leader said if she could change one thing from that period, it would be that families should have been allowed to make their own informed decisions on being with their dying loved ones. Asked about whether black, Asian and minority ethnic groups suffered as a result of pre-existing inequalities, Mrs Foster said this was true 'of a number of different groups'. 'Young people, for example, were denied chances in life that they would have otherwise had,' she said. 'Those living alone were isolated and lonely, people who were dying alone in hospital and if I could change one thing, my lady, it would be that. 'We should have given families all of the information, told them about the risks, and allowed them to make the decisions as to whether they wanted to be with their loved ones as they were dying. 'Because I think it is quite inhumane, when one thinks about it, to allow someone to die alone in the way that so many people did.' Michelle O'Neill spoke about Covid challenges (PA) Mrs Foster and Ms O'Neill were also asked about the decision to pause contact tracing on March 12 2020. It was reintroduced as a pilot on April 27 and introduced fully on May 18. Mrs Foster said the decision was made after a Cobra meeting on March 12, at which she, Ms O'Neill, and then Health Minister Robin Swann had little opportunity to engage and were 'in receive mode'. Both Mrs Foster and Ms O'Neill said they did not take it from the Cobra meeting that contact tracing was to stop. Mrs Foster said: 'I didn't have the understanding after that Cobra meeting, clearly wrongly now, that we were going to stop contact tracing as a consequence of the discussions at that Cobra meeting. The Department of Health clearly did have that understanding and stopped the contact tracing.' Mr McBride said it was 'clear' to him that a decision was made to stop contact tracing at the Cobra meeting. Asked by the inquiry chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett whether Mrs Foster and Ms O'Neill 'didn't understand that was what the decision was', he said: 'I thought it was clear and it was clearly reflected in the minutes of the Cobra meeting.' Mr McBride told the inquiry that testing capacity issues were behind the decision to stop community testing and that the ending of contact tracing was a 'second order' as a result. He said: 'Even a week after March 12, we had less than 200 tests available to us in Northern Ireland on a daily basis, and even that was limited because of the lack of reagents that we had and swabs that we had because of global supply issues.' Mr McBride said if they had more tests and testing capacity, they would have continued community testing and contact tracing for longer. Northern Ireland chief medical officer Sir Michael McBride giving evidence for module 7 to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry in London (UK Covid-19 Inquiry/PA) Mrs Foster said that test and trace was not initially seen as a 'significant' issue that warranted an Executive decision. She said in hindsight it 'probably should have come to the Executive' but also added it 'probably would have made it slower'. 'I know that there was a very real concern at that time that the amount of work officials were being asked to do was quite significant, and I'm not suggesting that it didn't come to the Executive for this reason but it would have certainly slowed decision-making down at that time,' she said. Ms O'Neill said she had raised concerns about ending contact tracing in March, as it went against the advice of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Notes by Ms O'Neill, who was then the deputy First Minister, were read out from a meeting on March 16 where she wrote 'GB approach nightmare compared to rest of world'. She told the inquiry it was 'absolutely' a decision by the Department of Health to stop contact tracing in mid-March and that she believed it 'wasn't the right approach'. Ms O'Neill was asked by Baroness Hallett whether she was not listened to because of deep political divides in Northern Ireland. 'The fact that we live on an island, the fact that we were one single epidemiological unit, that wasn't factored into decision-making. 'That's not a political point, that's just a logical point. I didn't feel like that was being taken on board. 'I think perhaps that, at times, could be seen as I wanted to follow everything in the south. I didn't. I wanted to follow everything that worked, and I didn't mind where it came from, as long as it worked for the people that we represented.' Former Northern Ireland health minister Robin Swann giving evidence for module 7 to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry in London (UK Covid-19 Inquiry/PA) Also appearing before the inquiry was former health minister Robin Swann, who said he remembers being challenged on the decision to end contact tracing in March 2020, but not being told to change course. He said the first minister and deputy first minister have the power to call any decision made by a minister to the Executive 'for a different approach to be taken'. 'My reading, my understanding of that conversation and their statements is that none of them thought we had taken that step too early,' Mr Swann said of ending contact tracing in mid-March 2020. 'In regards to the comments 'test, test, test', I think (it) was an easy soundbite because it didn't match actually our capacity in regards to the tests that we had.' He added: 'There was challenge, there was questioning, there was robust debate around the direction we were taking, but there was no direction from the Executive, first or deputy first minister, actually to change course. 'That approach for saying 'test, test, test', just because you say it doesn't mean to say tests will miraculously appear, reagents will appear, swabs will appear, or the machines that were necessary across the labs would suddenly materialise.' Asked about Hazel Gray, whose mother and father died of Covid and who had contacted Mr Swann in 2020, he expressed his sympathies with the family. Mr Swann said: 'If I had had the ability to test everyone regularly when they wanted it, as they required it, I can assure you, my lady, and this inquiry and the members that I would have been doing that from the very beginning.'
North Wales Chronicle
13-05-2025
- Health
- North Wales Chronicle
Couple died after Covid ‘taken into house by carers', daughter tells inquiry
Hazel Gray, from Northern Ireland, told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that the virus was spread by 'people doing their jobs', caring for the vulnerable. She said the trauma of not being able to be with her parents when they died will stay with her forever, adding that her mother and father 'disappeared'. Module seven of the inquiry is examining test, trace and isolate policies adopted during the pandemic. Ms Gray's parents, George and Violet Little, from Co Fermanagh, died in December 2020 and January 2021. They were 80 and 78 years old. Ms Gray, a member of the Northern Ireland Covid Bereaved Families for Justice group, told the inquiry on Tuesday that people in the region had presumed that 'things were being done' to prevent the spread of Covid. She said: 'Only when it came to my own doorstep did I realise that what I presumed was not happening at all. 'People who were working with vulnerable people – carers coming to my mother – were actually not being tested, nor were other healthcare workers. 'To me, it seemed to be a total lack of common sense; this was nine months into the pandemic. 'These people were actually spreading a virus and nothing was being done to counteract that.' The inquiry heard that Ms Gray's parents lived in a rural area and depended on carers who went to their house four times a day to move Mrs Little, who used a wheelchair. Counsel to the inquiry Sophie Cartwright asked Ms Gray if she was confident Covid was taken into her parents' house by the carers. Ms Gray said when her father first tested positive for the virus, she took a test herself. She said: 'I immediately went and had a test and I was negative, so I knew that it wasn't me that had passed the virus to them. 'My mum, we got her a postal test. Hers came back positive as well and then mine was positive. 'I am fairly confident I didn't bring the virus to them and nobody else would have been in the house other than the carers.' She said she spoke to the carers' manager and asked when they had been tested. She told the inquiry: 'His answer was, it wasn't the hospital trust policy to actually test carers who were going into the homes of vulnerable people. 'That was the shocking realisation that this was what was happening in the country – carers were going into the homes of people who were not tested.' Ms Gray said she sent a text message to then-health minister Robin Swann about the situation and he responded that he would look into it. She told the inquiry that her father died first, in December 2020, while her mother was in hospital. She said: 'I can't begin to imagine what it must have been like for my mother, knowing that my father had passed away and nobody was there with her to comfort her. 'They said on the day of my father's funeral she watched the clock.' Ms Gray also raised concerns about paramedics who attended to both her father and mother while wearing 'basic PPE'. She said: 'When I asked them did they get tested, they said no, who would do their jobs if they were going to be tested and come back positive? 'It was this attitude – 'If we don't get tested we won't know whether we are positive or not'. 'This virus was being spread by people who were doing their jobs and caring for people who were already sick. 'The process to me just did not make sense.' Ms Gray said she was not able to be with either of her parents when they died because of Covid restrictions. She said: 'If it had been an animal, a vet would encourage the animal's owner to be there with them to the very end. 'I, twice, didn't get that opportunity and so many people have had similar experiences. 'The trauma of not being there for your parents' last breaths will stay with me forever. 'My parents disappeared, I never saw them again.' Ms Gray added: 'My parents' lives were cut short. Their experience was horrendous – for me, for them, for the whole country. 'All those who were lost, their lives must not have meant nothing, they cannot have died in vain. 'We must have changes in this country that people never have to experience this kind of trauma over a virus again.'
Glasgow Times
13-05-2025
- Health
- Glasgow Times
Couple died after Covid ‘taken into house by carers', daughter tells inquiry
Hazel Gray, from Northern Ireland, told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that the virus was spread by 'people doing their jobs', caring for the vulnerable. She said the trauma of not being able to be with her parents when they died will stay with her forever, adding that her mother and father 'disappeared'. Module seven of the inquiry is examining test, trace and isolate policies adopted during the pandemic. Ms Gray's parents, George and Violet Little, from Co Fermanagh, died in December 2020 and January 2021. They were 80 and 78 years old. Ms Gray, a member of the Northern Ireland Covid Bereaved Families for Justice group, told the inquiry on Tuesday that people in the region had presumed that 'things were being done' to prevent the spread of Covid. She said: 'Only when it came to my own doorstep did I realise that what I presumed was not happening at all. 'People who were working with vulnerable people – carers coming to my mother – were actually not being tested, nor were other healthcare workers. 'To me, it seemed to be a total lack of common sense; this was nine months into the pandemic. 'These people were actually spreading a virus and nothing was being done to counteract that.' The inquiry heard that Ms Gray's parents lived in a rural area and depended on carers who went to their house four times a day to move Mrs Little, who used a wheelchair. Counsel to the inquiry Sophie Cartwright asked Ms Gray if she was confident Covid was taken into her parents' house by the carers. Ms Gray said when her father first tested positive for the virus, she took a test herself. She said: 'I immediately went and had a test and I was negative, so I knew that it wasn't me that had passed the virus to them. 'My mum, we got her a postal test. Hers came back positive as well and then mine was positive. 'I am fairly confident I didn't bring the virus to them and nobody else would have been in the house other than the carers.' She said she spoke to the carers' manager and asked when they had been tested. She told the inquiry: 'His answer was, it wasn't the hospital trust policy to actually test carers who were going into the homes of vulnerable people. 'That was the shocking realisation that this was what was happening in the country – carers were going into the homes of people who were not tested.' Hazel Gray said things she believed were being done to prevent the spread of Covid were not being done (UK Covid-19 Inquiry/PA) Ms Gray said she sent a text message to then-health minister Robin Swann about the situation and he responded that he would look into it. She told the inquiry that her father died first, in December 2020, while her mother was in hospital. She said: 'I can't begin to imagine what it must have been like for my mother, knowing that my father had passed away and nobody was there with her to comfort her. 'They said on the day of my father's funeral she watched the clock.' Ms Gray also raised concerns about paramedics who attended to both her father and mother while wearing 'basic PPE'. She said: 'When I asked them did they get tested, they said no, who would do their jobs if they were going to be tested and come back positive? 'It was this attitude – 'If we don't get tested we won't know whether we are positive or not'. 'This virus was being spread by people who were doing their jobs and caring for people who were already sick. 'The process to me just did not make sense.' Ms Gray said she was not able to be with either of her parents when they died because of Covid restrictions. She said: 'If it had been an animal, a vet would encourage the animal's owner to be there with them to the very end. 'I, twice, didn't get that opportunity and so many people have had similar experiences. 'The trauma of not being there for your parents' last breaths will stay with me forever. 'My parents disappeared, I never saw them again.' Ms Gray added: 'My parents' lives were cut short. Their experience was horrendous – for me, for them, for the whole country. 'All those who were lost, their lives must not have meant nothing, they cannot have died in vain. 'We must have changes in this country that people never have to experience this kind of trauma over a virus again.'
Western Telegraph
13-05-2025
- Health
- Western Telegraph
Couple died after Covid ‘taken into house by carers', daughter tells inquiry
Hazel Gray, from Northern Ireland, told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that the virus was spread by 'people doing their jobs', caring for the vulnerable. She said the trauma of not being able to be with her parents when they died will stay with her forever, adding that her mother and father 'disappeared'. Module seven of the inquiry is examining test, trace and isolate policies adopted during the pandemic. Ms Gray's parents, George and Violet Little, from Co Fermanagh, died in December 2020 and January 2021. They were 80 and 78 years old. Ms Gray, a member of the Northern Ireland Covid Bereaved Families for Justice group, told the inquiry on Tuesday that people in the region had presumed that 'things were being done' to prevent the spread of Covid. She said: 'Only when it came to my own doorstep did I realise that what I presumed was not happening at all. 'People who were working with vulnerable people – carers coming to my mother – were actually not being tested, nor were other healthcare workers. 'To me, it seemed to be a total lack of common sense; this was nine months into the pandemic. 'These people were actually spreading a virus and nothing was being done to counteract that.' The inquiry heard that Ms Gray's parents lived in a rural area and depended on carers who went to their house four times a day to move Mrs Little, who used a wheelchair. Counsel to the inquiry Sophie Cartwright asked Ms Gray if she was confident Covid was taken into her parents' house by the carers. Ms Gray said when her father first tested positive for the virus, she took a test herself. She said: 'I immediately went and had a test and I was negative, so I knew that it wasn't me that had passed the virus to them. 'My mum, we got her a postal test. Hers came back positive as well and then mine was positive. 'I am fairly confident I didn't bring the virus to them and nobody else would have been in the house other than the carers.' She said she spoke to the carers' manager and asked when they had been tested. She told the inquiry: 'His answer was, it wasn't the hospital trust policy to actually test carers who were going into the homes of vulnerable people. 'That was the shocking realisation that this was what was happening in the country – carers were going into the homes of people who were not tested.' Hazel Gray said things she believed were being done to prevent the spread of Covid were not being done (UK Covid-19 Inquiry/PA) Ms Gray said she sent a text message to then-health minister Robin Swann about the situation and he responded that he would look into it. She told the inquiry that her father died first, in December 2020, while her mother was in hospital. She said: 'I can't begin to imagine what it must have been like for my mother, knowing that my father had passed away and nobody was there with her to comfort her. 'They said on the day of my father's funeral she watched the clock.' Ms Gray also raised concerns about paramedics who attended to both her father and mother while wearing 'basic PPE'. She said: 'When I asked them did they get tested, they said no, who would do their jobs if they were going to be tested and come back positive? 'It was this attitude – 'If we don't get tested we won't know whether we are positive or not'. 'This virus was being spread by people who were doing their jobs and caring for people who were already sick. 'The process to me just did not make sense.' Ms Gray said she was not able to be with either of her parents when they died because of Covid restrictions. She said: 'If it had been an animal, a vet would encourage the animal's owner to be there with them to the very end. 'I, twice, didn't get that opportunity and so many people have had similar experiences. 'The trauma of not being there for your parents' last breaths will stay with me forever. 'My parents disappeared, I never saw them again.' Ms Gray added: 'My parents' lives were cut short. Their experience was horrendous – for me, for them, for the whole country. 'All those who were lost, their lives must not have meant nothing, they cannot have died in vain. 'We must have changes in this country that people never have to experience this kind of trauma over a virus again.'
