JEANE Freeman launched an attack on Westminster officials for the “vacuum” of information and lack of collaboration in fighting the coronavirus pandemic as a United Kingdom.

During a meeting of the Scottish Affairs Committee, Ms Freeman told MPs she was concerned about there being no COBRA meetings for more than a month, and the news that joint ministerial groups were to be disbanded with no suggestion of what would replace them.

The health secretary said that while there had been “significant engagement throughout by scientists and clinicians” across Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales, “engagement at a senior ministerial and political level has not been as consistent as we would wish it to be.”

READ MORE: Ministers accused of ‘shambolic’ Covid data

She said: “The last Cobra meeting was the 10th of May, and as you'll know a number of further decisions in the respective nations of UK have been taken subsequent to that. And that really is part of my point that cooperation, collaboration, requires discussion. It's not simply the communication of decisions.”

Ms Freeman, who has come under fire several times during her reign as health chief, said that she had “no relationship” with Scottish Secretary Alister Jack prior to the pandemic starting, and had directly spoken with him since it started other than at one meeting at which UK health minister Matt Hancock attended, in Edinburgh.

She also said that points she and her fellow devolved administration health chiefs have put to Mr Hancock have been left unanswered, specifically around overseas procurement of PPE being provided and the disbanding of joint discussion groups.

She added: “There is currently a vacuum in terms of shared decision making and discussion at ministerial level.”

Pete Wishart, SNP MP asked her if she believed the “four nations approach was dead, or dying”, to which she replied that it “remains important…but what I don’t understand and can’t answer for you is why Cobra has not met since May 10.”

When asked by Mr Wishart whether the Scottish Conservatives “almost daily request” for her resignation was “hampering” her ability to do her job, she replied: “ No, I am absolutely determined to do that job and continue to do it.”

Dierdre Brock, SNP MP, asked about whether the Scottish Government had been involved in the development or progress of the UK Government’s test and trace app, to which Ms Freeman responded that they had not been and that until problems linking the app with NHS England were resolved, the app was “not on the horizon” for use in Scotland.

Ms Freeman was challenged over the testing levels for carehome residents and staff, which she defended by saying the policy was “relatively new” when asked by MP John Lamont about the figures.

Mr Lamont, conservative MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk asked if Ms Freeman felt there were “sufficient tests in the Borders for care workers”, to which she replied “yes, I do.”

READ MORE: Billy Connolly on 'pathetic' Scottish Labour and what he really thinks about independence

The MP confronted the health secretary over the figures, saying just 22 carehome workers were tested last week in the Borders, adding: “The chief executive from Scottish borders council said there were not enough tests to do even half of the care workers in the borders.”

The Health secretary was forced to admit that this figure was “not sufficient” and said: “ Well, that would not be sufficient because I imagine that doesn't cover all carehome workers in the Borders so the self-evident answer to that is no that is not sufficient, which is why I have issued that requirements to our NHS boards who are responsible for delivering this.”

Fellow conservative MP Andrew Bowie brought the issue of care homes up again during the session, in which he said the percentage of deaths from coronavirus in carehomes was “shameful” and asked if Ms Freeman agreed with a think-tank report describing the “impact of coronavirus on carehomes as an unmitigated disaster, and the single biggest failing of devolution".

He said: “You suggest that lessons should be learned, that's a bit of an understatement. Do you regret the decision to send 1031 people from hospitals to carehomes?”

Ms Freeman replied: “ Based on the information, and the evidence we had at that time, many of the steps we took were common across the four nations for the UK in terms of discharging patients to care homes, although the majority did go home. So that's, that's not the view that I would take that's not to say that I don't think, with hindsight, there are lessons to be learned and decisions that were made at the time that I would not necessarily make now.”