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UK COVID-19 Inquiry

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The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is an ongoing, independent public inquiry into the United Kingdom's response to, and the impact of, the COVID-19 pandemic, and to learn lessons for the future. Public hearings began in June 2023. Boris Johnson announced the inquiry in May 2021, to start in Spring 2022. In December 2021, Heather Hallett was announced as the chair of the inquiry.

The draft terms of the inquiry include the UK's preparedness for the pandemic, the use of lockdowns and other non-pharmaceutical interventions, pandemic management in hospitals and care homes, equipment procurement, and the financial support made available. It covers the period up to and including the Inquiry being established on 28 June 2022, and England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. There is also a separate Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry.

Calls for an inquiry

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Main article: British government response to the COVID-19 pandemic
See also: Statistics of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

The BMJ advocated for an inquiry in May 2020 to take place before an expected second wave of infections.[1]

Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice were pressuring the government to launch a judge-led statutory public inquiry into the pandemic and the government's response to it, with a rapid review phase.[2][3][4] The group threatened legal action, and lawyers representing the group informed ministers that they were planning to seek judicial review by the High Court.[5] Lawyers representing the group have acted in major public inquiries including into the Hillsborough, Grenfell Tower and Manchester Arena disasters.[6]

Medical professionals who supported an inquiry included Chaand Nagpaul, Donna Kinnair, Paul Nurse,[7] and leading medical think tank the King's Fund.[8] Unions such as the TUC,[9] Unison, GMB the British Medical Association, Royal College of Nursing and Royal College of Physicians were also in support.[7][10] Equality activists Zara Mohammed and Simon Woolley supported an inquiry.[7]

Calls for an inquiry was supported by political figures Keir Starmer (Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition),[11] Ed Davey (Leader of the Liberal Democrats),[12] Bob Kerslake (former Head of the Home Civil Service), and former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron.[7] Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, had also called for an inquiry.[13] The Institute for Government also supported inquiry calls.[8]

Proposals[by whom?] for topics to address in the inquiry have included: the scientific advice given to ministers, the death rate in the UK, the test, track and trace system, communication of infection control measures and implementation of lockdown measures, travel restrictions, attempts to redress the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on ethnic minorities, as well as a review of the functioning of the National Health Service and its staff during the pandemic. Healthcare topics include supplies of personal protective equipment, the transfer of patients from hospitals to care homes, risk assessments (including failures to respond to warnings in 2017's Exercise Cygnus, which reported that the UK was not prepared for a pandemic), isolation, staff testing, the functioning of 111 services, the centralisation of decision-making (including tensions between the government and regional mayors) and the role of austerity in decision-making.[14][15][16][17][18][19][excessive citations]

In March 2021 polling, 47% of the British public supported an inquiry, with 35% neither supporting nor opposing or didn't know, and 18% opposed.[20]

Inquiry

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Inquiry Chair Heather Hallett

Boris Johnson announced in May 2021 that an inquiry would take place, and start in spring 2022.[21] He said the date was chosen because of a possible winter surge in infections, but that preparatory work on the terms of reference would start earlier, as would choosing a chair.[22]

On 15 December 2021, Heather Hallett was announced as the chair of the inquiry.[23] Unlike other public inquiries, a statutory public inquiry has the power to subpoena people and take evidence under oath.[24] The inquiry will be the biggest ever such undertaking by the UK government.[15]

Draft terms of reference were announced on 11 March 2022. Issues covered included the UK's preparedness, the use of lockdowns and other non-pharmaceutical interventions, pandemic management in hospitals and care homes, equipment procurement, and the financial support made available.[25]

Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, and Care Campaign for the Vulnerable both criticised the decision to omit Partygate from the terms.[26] A former Children's Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, called the lack of focus on children's experiences in lockdown a "shocking oversight".[27]

Public consultation on the terms ran from 11 March until 7 April and received over 20,000 responses. Hallett has said she would consider these responses and present her revised recommendations to Johnson in May 2022. Final terms of reference were published on 28 June 2022,[28] allowing the inquiry to formally commence.[25][26] Hallett expects public hearings to begin in 2023.[29][30] The first preliminary public hearing took place on 4 October 2022.[31] Public hearings are due to be held into 2026.[32]

The Inquiry is split into modules. As of October 2023, the first five modules had started (plus a sixth future module announced):[33]

  1. Resilience and preparedness
  2. Core UK decision-making and political governance
  3. Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on healthcare systems in the 4 nations of the UK
  4. Vaccines and therapeutics (postponed as of 10 January 2024) [34]
  5. Procurement
  6. Care sector

Request for Johnson material

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The Inquiry asked for diaries, notebooks and WhatsApp messages by Johnson. The request included:[35]

  • Unredacted messages sent and received by Johnson from 1 January 2020 to 24 February 2022
  • Unredacted diaries for Johnson from 1 January 2020 to 24 February 2022
  • Copies of 24 unredacted notebooks filled in by Johnson from 1 January 2020 to 24 February 2022
  • Unredacted messages sent and received by adviser Henry Cook from 1 January 2020 to 24 February 2022

Johnson had provided materials to the Cabinet Office, although it later emerged that he had only provided WhatsApp messages from May 2021 when he got a new phone following a security breach on his previous phone.[35]

The Cabinet Office supplied redacted versions, saying they had removed material not relevant to the Inquiry, but the Inquiry asked for the unredacted material using a Section 21 notice, leading to a dispute in May 2023 with the government.[36] The Cabinet Office launched legal action, a judicial review, on 1 June over their concerns that handing over all the material would compromise ministers' and other individuals' right to privacy. The legal action argued against the inquiry having "the power to compel production of documents and messages which are unambiguously irrelevant to the inquiry's work".[35] On 6 July 2023, the High Court ruled that the government must release the documents to the inquiry, and the government said it accepted the ruling.[37]

Module 1 – The resilience and preparedness of the United Kingdom

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Public hearings for Module 1 – resilience and preparedness – began on 13 June 2023.[38] Former prime minister David Cameron told the inquiry that his government had focussed too much on preparations for an influenza pandemic, and that there were failures to act on findings from the 2016 Exercise Alice simulation; he denied that austerity measures had weakened the health service.[39] George Osborne, former chancellor, argued that austerity had left Britain better prepared, making money available for furlough and other programmes.[40] Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock criticised the government's preparedness for a pandemic, saying it was too focused on handling the aftermath of a pandemic rather than preventing one, and that resources were prioritised on planning for the event of a no-deal Brexit.[41] Former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told the inquiry that Scotland did not have a "set plan" to deal with a pandemic such as Covid 19. She also stated that the Scottish government was "not happy" that potential pandemic planning resources were reallocated to plan for a possible no-deal Brexit instead.[42][43]

Module 2 – Decision-making and political governance

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Hearings for module two of the inquiry – Decision-making and Political Governance – began on 3 October 2023.[44] Former Chief Adviser to the Prime Minister Dominic Cummings gave evidence on 31 October 2023.[45] In WhatsApp messages sent to senior adviser Lee Cain, Cummings said that then prime minister Boris Johnson believed that the pandemic would "be like the swine flu".[46] In other messages in reference to deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara, he called her propriety and ethics "bullshit" and said that it was "designed to waste huge amounts of his time". He also said that he wanted to "personally handcuff her and escort her from the building" and that answering her questions was like "dodging stilettos". Cummings was asked if these statements were misogynistic, which he denied.[46][47] In other messages Cummings called ministers "useless fuckpigs [sic]", "cunts" and "morons".[48]

Critical response

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The Covid Inquiry was criticised by the director of the University of Oxford's Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, Carl Heneghan, who gave evidence to the inquiry, for refusing to engage in the core issues of the pandemic and "silencing science" and being too concerned with the offensiveness of language in private messages. Heneghan criticised the inquiry for attempting to attack his credentials while ignoring previous publications, and ignoring generalist analysis which he said would have been useful during the pandemic.[49]

Heneghan said that the inquiry should consider the side effects of the "Protect the NHS", messaging that Heneghan believes reduced care for diseases other than covid; whether the confinement of care-home residents was a good policy, which he believes was both ineffective and had immense human costs; the reliability of test-and-trace; and the accuracy and use of epidemiological modelling in decision making.[49]

Michael Simmons, writing in The Spectator, said that the Inquiry was asking the wrong questions and had learned nothing about the problems of the use of modelling which he thought had led to inaccuracies in decision making. He says that the models failed to consider the effects of behaviour change, citing historic work by Neil Ferguson, and evidence given Ben Warner.[50]

Heneghan argues that there was a need for a "red team" to challenge government policy during future pandemics given Heneghan's belief that young academics were unable to challenge an orthodoxy during the pandemic.[49] Writing in the Financial Times, Camilla Cavendish, says that by June 2020 she had formed an opinion that the government needed a red team to challenge assumptions, she argues that such a team could have answered legitimate questions about whether lockdowns were working, the balance between the young and the old, and the accuracy of scientific models.[51]

Heneghan said that rather than assessing whether lockdowns were an effective policy the inquiry assumed that the correct policy was to impose more severe lockdown restrictions earlier.[49] Simmons said that the Inquiry should answer whether lockdowns worked definitively, citing evidence given by Simon Stevens that expressed the same view.[50]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ McKee, Martin; Gill, Mike; Wollaston, Sarah (22 May 2020). "Public inquiry into UK's response to covid-19". BMJ. 369: m2052. doi:10.1136/bmj.m2052. ISSN 1756-1833. PMID 32444349. S2CID 218857813.
  2. ^ "'We owe it to families and victims to get on with Covid inquiry'". ITV News. 28 April 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  3. ^ Booth, Robert; Sample, Ian (16 March 2021). "Bereaved families call for judge-led public inquiry into UK Covid response". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  4. ^ Conn, David (11 May 2020). "Bereaved families seek 'justice' for UK victims of coronavirus". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  5. ^ "Families of Covid dead to take legal action to force inquiry". The Times. 7 March 2021. Retrieved 3 May 2021. A letter will be sent to the government this month on behalf of the group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, informing ministers that they will seek judicial review proceedings in the High Court. It is an attempt to force the hand of Boris Johnson, who has refused to hold an investigation into why Britain suffered the worst Covid-19 death toll in Europe, at more than 140,000 fatalities.
  6. ^ Booth, Robert (17 March 2021). "Bereaved families issue legal ultimatum to Boris Johnson over Covid inquiry". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d "Pressure mounts on Boris Johnson to launch coronavirus inquiry". The Guardian. 16 March 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  8. ^ a b "PM told to establish Covid public inquiry 'now' by leading think tanks". East Lothian Courier. 29 April 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  9. ^ "TUC calls for immediate public inquiry into Covid deaths". The Guardian. 27 April 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  10. ^ Whiteside, Philip (28 April 2021). "COVID-19: Unions add to calls for date to be set for start of coronavirus public inquiry". Sky News. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  11. ^ "Johnson promises Covid response inquiry 'soon as right to do so'". ITV News. 24 March 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  12. ^ "Boris Johnson 'trying to hide' from scrutiny of Covid inquiry – Ed Davey". The Guardian. 18 March 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  13. ^ "Justin Welby calls for start to public inquiry into handling of Covid". The Guardian. 21 April 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  14. ^ Zebrowski, Chris; Sage, Daniel; Jörden, Nina Marie (9 April 2021). "Five questions that need answering in a COVID public inquiry". The Conversation. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  15. ^ a b Booth, Robert; Sample, Ian (16 March 2021). "UK's response to Covid: issues that a public inquiry could examine". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  16. ^ Goodman, Jo; Prudhoe, Kathryn de; Williams, Charlie (16 January 2021). "UK COVID-19 public inquiry needed to learn lessons and save lives". The Lancet. 397 (10270): 177–180. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32726-4. PMC 7832557. PMID 33357492.
  17. ^ Kmietowicz, Zosia (3 December 2020). "Covid-19: Bereaved families, unions, and charities demand immediate public inquiry to save lives". BMJ. 371: m4729. doi:10.1136/bmj.m4729. ISSN 1756-1833. PMID 33272925.
  18. ^ Conn, David (29 April 2021). "Covid bereaved condemn government refusal to publish NHS 111 training content". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  19. ^ Conn, David (12 June 2020). "Bereaved relatives call for immediate inquiry into Covid-19 crisis". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  20. ^ "Public support for Covid inquiry more than twice as high as opposition – poll". The Guardian. 17 March 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  21. ^ "Covid inquiry: What is it and how will it work?". BBC News. 12 May 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  22. ^ "Covid: Lessons to be learned from spring 2022 public inquiry – PM". BBC News. 12 May 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  23. ^ "Ex-High Court judge Baroness Hallett to chair Covid inquiry". BBC News. 15 December 2021. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  24. ^ "Coronavirus: Boris Johnson 'heartless' for not meeting bereaved families". BBC News. 2 September 2020. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  25. ^ a b O'Connor, Mary (11 March 2022). "UK Covid inquiry draft terms of reference set out". BBC News. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
  26. ^ a b Smith, Mikey; Sharpe, Amy (16 April 2022). "More than 20,000 Brits demand changes to Covid inquiry after Partygate left out". Mirror. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
  27. ^ McTaggart, India (21 March 2022). "'Airbrushing' children's lockdown experiences from the Covid inquiry is a 'shocking oversight'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
  28. ^ Cabinet Office, UK COVID-19 Inquiry: terms of reference, published 28 June 2022, accessed 6 July 2022
  29. ^ Dunton, Jim (11 March 2022). "Covid public inquiry hearings 'will not begin until 2023 at the earliest'". Civil Service World. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
  30. ^ Hallett, Heather (11 March 2022). "Chair's open letter to the public" (PDF). UK Covid-19 Inquiry. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
  31. ^ "Module 1 Preliminary Hearing Agenda – Tuesday 4 October 2022" (PDF). 30 September 2022.
  32. ^ "Covid inquiry live: Pandemic a period 'akin to war'". BBC News. 14 June 2023. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  33. ^ "Structure of the Inquiry". UK Covid-19 Inquiry.
  34. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-67935037.amp [bare URL]
  35. ^ a b c Baker, Tim; Rogers, Alexandra (1 June 2023). "COVID inquiry: Government seeks judicial review over order to hand over Boris Johnson WhatsApp messages". Sky News.
  36. ^ Allegretti, Aubrey (29 May 2023). "Cabinet Office may take legal action to deny Covid inquiry Boris Johnson material". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
  37. ^ "Government loses court case over Johnson WhatsApps". BBC News. 6 July 2023. Retrieved 6 July 2023.
  38. ^ "UK complacent over Covid pandemic planning – families' lawyer". BBC News. 13 June 2023.
  39. ^ Corless, Blathnaid; Johnston, Neil (19 June 2023). "David Cameron admits prioritising flu pandemic was 'mistake'". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
  40. ^ Smyth, Chris; Beal, James (21 June 2023). "Lockdown 'harmed a generation of children', Covid inquiry told". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  41. ^ "Matt Hancock says UK's pandemic strategy was completely wrong". BBC News. 27 June 2023. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
  42. ^ "Nicola Sturgeon: Scotland had 'no set plan' to deal with Covid-style pandemic". The Guardian. 29 June 2023. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
  43. ^ "Brexit hampered Scotland's pandemic plan, Nicola Sturgeon says". BBC News. 29 June 2023. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
  44. ^ "Core UK Decision-making and Political Governance (Module 2) – Public Hearings". UK Covid-19 Inquiry. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
  45. ^ "Module 2 public hearings timetable". UK Covid-19 Inquiry. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
  46. ^ a b "Covid inquiry: Read the private WhatsApp messages from inside Downing Street". BBC News. 31 October 2023. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
  47. ^ Clinton, Jane; Sparrow, Andrew; Clinton (now), Jane; Sparrow (earlier), Andrew (31 October 2023). "Dominic Cummings tells Covid inquiry foul-mouthed messages about colleague weren't misogynistic – UK politics live". the Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
  48. ^ Best bits: Dominic Cummings exposes total chaos in Downing Street during pandemic at Covid Inquiry, retrieved 31 October 2023
  49. ^ a b c d Heneghan, Carl (1 November 2023). "We needed a Covid inquiry – but this isn't it". The Spectator. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  50. ^ a b Simmons, Michael (7 November 2023). "The Covid Inquiry is exposing lockdown's dodgy models". The Spectator. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  51. ^ Cavendish, Camilla (3 November 2023). "Covid inquiry must offer more than lurid revelations". Financial Times. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
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