Conception and management of the Covid-19 crisis in the UK: consequences on the Scottish constitutional preferences

The Covid-19 crisis management has rekindled the constitutional debate in the UK and especially in Scotland. If the different levels of government presented a united front in the early hours of the health crisis, policy differences and tensions soon came - the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, accusing Boris Johnson of ignoring the subnational entities once again and of breaking the alliance between the four governments. By focusing on the relations between the Scottish and British governments, the goal of the contribution is twofold. 1) Analyse British specificities in the management of the crisis : the sharing of expertise between the central and Scottish levels, the distribution of competences and the coordination in implementing the policies adopted to fight the pandemic; and 2) highlight the stakes for the future of British- Scottish intergovernmental relations by analyzing how Scottish actors used the Covid-19 crisis management to encourage a change in (or the retention of) the current government structure.
The paper will draw on the analysis of official documents and the preceding debates in the Chamber, the Scottish Strategic Frameworks published from October 2020, as well as the official reports from the Covid-19 Recovery Committee in Holyrood. This will allow us to analyse how the management of the crisis was conceived and implemented, as well as to highlight how the management of the crisis has influenced the constitutional debate in Scotland.