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The inquiry will resume next week but before you go, here is a recap of today's key points.

• Sir Jeremy Farrar, chief scientist at the World Health Organisation, warned more pandemics were "inevitable" and the UK must invest in scientific infrastructure like vaccines or else it will be "woefully unprepared";
• The country was "complacent" in its pandemic planning after its experience of swine flu, he said;
• Brexit was blamed again, as both Nicola Sturgeon and her former deputy said the "very, very severe" consequences of a potential no-deal forced them to divert resources to prepare for the eventuality at the expense of pandemic planning;
• It also led to souring relationships between the UK's constituent nations, they said, potentially including health ministers;
• Ms Sturgeon admitted Scotland "did not get everything right" and that questions over planning for contact tracing and testing are "in my mind literally every day";
• The "burden of austerity" impacted the Public Health Scotland budget and reduced staff at Health Protection Scotland, former deputy first minister John Swinney suggested.

"I think we've all had enough acronyms for one day," says the chair of the inquiry, as she ends today's session after senior civli servant Catherine Frances finishes giving her evidence.

The inquiry will resume next week.

"There was definitely a really significant reduction in local government resources in the 2010s as part of a wider government approach to fiscal policy," says Catherine Frances.

Kate Blackwell KC, counsel for the inquiry, asks her what impact this cut in core funding had.

"Councils make their own decisions about what they are going to prioritise" so it is "hard to generalise", says Ms Frances.

Overall "they have tended to uphold expenditure" in adult social care and children's services and "make reductions elsewhere".

She says: "I would say I have seen council's capacity being affected."

Kate Blackwell KC draws the inquiry's attention to two reports criticising the attitude of central government to local resilience forums (LRFs).

Remember, these LRFs are made up of emergency services, local authorities and NHS bodies in a particular area which plan for mitigating risks - being the bodies that are dealing with problems on the ground.

One report said that integrating national and local approaches to the pandemic was hampered by ministers who did not trust or understand LRFs.

Central government did not share enough intelligence and risk plans with LRFs, undermining the ability of local areas to undertake "timely and informed local planning", the second report said.

Senior civil servant Catherine Frances says LRFs have access to "secured" information in the National Security Risk Assessment via nominated delegates through secure channels.

She says that in terms of pandemic planning, "the basic building blocks" and assumptions about planning were all the same across central and local governments anyway.

"I would say that in the pandemic things moved at pace, and sometimes that may have led local planners to say: 'could you not have told us that earlier'."

The inquiry is getting into the weeds of local government pandemic preparedness structures.

We have heard perhaps more acronyms and titles in the past 15 minutes than at any point during the inquiry this week.

But it is worth taking note of two organisations that have been raised before we move to questioning.

Emergency services, local authorities and NHS bodies meet in local resilience forums (LRFs), which plan for risks and geographically mirror UK police authorities.

The Resilience and Emergencies Division (RED) sits between the LRFs and central government to act as a conduit for communication and advice.

RED is under Catherine Frances's remit and is the organisation about to be examined.

Outside the court as questioning continues inside, it seems Nicola Sturgeon's offer of condolences to those who lost loved ones has fallen on deaf ears, writes news correspondent Ivor Bennett at the inquiry.

The lawyer representing the Scottish Covid Bereaved group said families "want much more than words of sympathy".

Speaking to media outside the inquiry, Aamer Anwar added: "They want the truth, they want accountability."

He was joined by Alan Inglis, whose son Calum died alone in his prison cell after contracting COVID in 2021.

"Calum died on Nicola's watch," Mr Inglis said.

"We're fed up with excuses, skirting around the questions. We're just looking for accountability but most of all that this never happens again because I wouldn't like any other family to go through what we've gone through."

Catherine Frances is now answering questions put to her by Kate Blackwell KC.

She is director general for local government, resilience and communities at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities 

The Resilience and Emergencies Division - which works on resilience planning and response with local government - is part of her remit.

The inquiry examines a report by Dr Jim McMenamin which says staffing numbers reduced at Health Protection Scotland between 2005 and 2020, in part due to government-mandated efficient savings.

It found the budget of Public Health Scotland was "not sufficient" to deliver the protection measures required by a pandemic.

"We've had along period of austerity that has required us to live within a very challenging fiscal environment in the Scottish government," says Mr Swinney.

"There were financial pressures through every aspect of the public sector in Scotland by the public health budget "grew the most" compared to any other budgets under control of the Scottish government, he says.

He adds: "At no stage did I feel that we did not have the necessary information or interventions available to us" but "the burden of austerity and the requirement for efficiency savings has been acute for many organisations"

Heather Fisken, of Inclusion Scotland, which represents disabled people, submitted a statement to the inquiry which said the group was not invited to engage with government before the pandemic.

As a result "inequalties faced by disabled people were not sufficiently factored in" to pandemic planning, she said.

Mr Swinney says he is "troubled by" the statement and it is "the last impression or feeling I would want" Ms Fisken to have.

Ms Blackwell points out the groups absence from government consultations was not a feeling, but fact.

The former deputy first minister says: "There is extensive consultation with third-party organisations" but he does "regret the fact that that's the case and I think that can and should be rectified by the Scottish government."

Kate Blackwell KC's next line of questions is on how well England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland worked together in an emergency.

John Swinney, deputy first minister of Scotland under Nicola Sturgeon, starts by saying cooperation was not "particularly poor" and there was a "pretty good amount" of it.

But, he adds, "generally relationships between the administration were pretty poor" by the pandemic.

"Poor in the aftermath of Brexit, because obviously constituent parts of the UK - Scotland was not happy about Brexit," he says.