In his testimony to the UK Covid‑19 Inquiry, Boris Johnson acknowledged that the UK government had 'consideration' on the table for mass school closures at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, telling the panel it would have been 'surprising' if such planning had not taken place.
He stated that the Department for Education (DfE) 'looked to me as though ... was preparing for that' by March 2020. Yet his account clashes with evidence from the DfE's permanent secretary, who told the Inquiry a formal contingency plan for school closures was only commissioned on 17 March 2020 — one day before schools were locked down.
