Closing summary
Lady Hallett “has not gone far enough” in setting out how the UK can improve inequalities that were laid bare during the pandemic, bereaved families have said. A spokesperson for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group, speaking outside the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, said: “We, the bereaved families, whose experiences speak to the very heart of what went wrong, are relieved to see many of our recommendations reflected in Lady Hallett’s report, in particular those that address the structures required to ensure that the UK is prepared and resilient to face the inevitable future pandemic.”
The former health secretaries Jeremy Hunt and Matt Hancock have been criticised for their failure to better prepare the UK for the pandemic in a damning first report from the Covid inquiry that calls for a major overhaul in how the government prepares for civil emergencies. Hunt, who was the health secretary from 2012-18, and Hancock, who took over until 2021, were named by the chair to the inquiry, Heather Hallett, for failing to rectify flaws in contingency planning ahead of the pandemic, which claimed more than 230,000 lives in the UK.
Keir Starmer said the UK Covid-19 Inquiry’s report confirmed that “the UK was under-prepared for Covid-19” and that policy “failed UK citizens”. The prime minister said in a statement: “Today’s report confirms what many have always believed - that the UK was under-prepared for Covid-19, and that process, planning and policy across all four nations failed UK citizens.”
The human and financial cost and sacrifice of the coronavirus pandemic “will have been in vain” unless radical change is implemented, Lady Hallett warned. Concluding her statement, she said she expected each organisation responsible for applying her recommendations to set out within six months how it plans to respond. All recommendations must be implemented in order to bring about the changes needed, she said.
The chair of the UK Covid-19 public inquiry said that one of the first lines of defence in a pandemic is “containment” but a system of test, trace and isolate “did not exist in the UK when the pandemic struck”. Lady Hallett said: “To give but one vitally important example: one of the first lines of defence to a pandemic is containment and this requires a system of test, trace and isolate that can be rapidly scaled up to meet the demands of a major outbreak.”
The Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association – the hospital doctors’ union – has said “the incompetent lack of contingency planning … [resulted in] countless deaths, the trauma of working in horrific circumstances and lengthy lockdowns” and said it has left an entire generation scarred. In a statement in response to the report, the HCSA president, Dr Naru Narayanan, said: “This lays bare the dereliction of duty at the top in the years leading up to the worst global healthcare emergency of modern times. Complacency in government left us grossly unprepared in the complete absence of any serious planning for a Covid-style pandemic.”
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the UK Covid-19 inquiry live blog. Thank you for following along.
Keir Starmer has said the government will “carefully consider the recommendations” of the first UK Covid-19 Inquiry report.
In a written ministerial statement, the prime minister said:
The government’s first responsibility is to keep the public safe, and as prime minister I am personally committed to each and every family that lost loved ones, and whose lives were changed forever, that this government will learn the lessons from the Inquiry.
This means ensuring that the UK is prepared for a future pandemic, as well as the broadest range of potential risks facing our country. That is a top priority for this government and what everyone should rightly expect from a government working in their service.
The government is committed to working with our colleagues in the devolved governments, mayors and local partners as we carefully consider the recommendations in the report, as their efforts are vital to ensuring the resilience of the whole of the United Kingdom.
I would like to thank Baroness Hallett and her team for their thorough work on this report. The government will carefully consider all of the findings and recommendations of the report in the context of the government’s overall approach to resilience.
In further response from the medical profession, the chairman of the British Medical Association, Professor Philip Banfield, has released a statement which does not hold back on its criticism of the “disinvestment and disinterest in public health” he says took place under the Tories.
“This report reveals in all its true horror how appallingly under-prepared the governments were for the pandemic, that processes failed us as citizens, and that lives could have been saved.
“We knew that when the pandemic began our healthcare services were already struggling to cope and ‘running hot’ because of years of neglect and under investment by the Conservative government.
“This report lays bare how, time and time again, ministers were told that we simply did not have enough staff or resources to cope with the predictable huge surge in demand for healthcare that a pandemic would bring. It shows just how many times governments ignored key findings …
“Many intensive care beds were occupied by the most vulnerable among us – those already navigating long-term illnesses, or those more at risk due to their ethnicity. As the report makes clear, we already had a relatively unhealthy population and widening health inequalities when the pandemic struck, which meant they were the hardest hit.
“This unhealthy population was exacerbated by years of disinvestment and disinterest in public health by the government. The report shows how that disinterest continued, even during the pandemic, when ministers failed to engage with public health specialists and utilise their expertise – particularly on test and trace options.
“A key recommendation in the report is a call for fundamental reform of the way the UK prepares for civil emergencies on the scale of the Covid pandemic and whilst the BMA acknowledges this is the first of many reports and recommendations to come, we hope that change comes soon.”
The Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association – the hospital doctors’ union – has said “the incompetent lack of contingency planning … [resulted in] countless deaths, the trauma of working in horrific circumstances and lengthy lockdowns” and said it has left an entire generation scarred.
In a statement in response to the report, the HCSA president, Dr Naru Narayanan, said: “This lays bare the dereliction of duty at the top in the years leading up to the worst global healthcare emergency of modern times. Complacency in government left us grossly unprepared in the complete absence of any serious planning for a Covid-style pandemic. The false economy of underfunding NHS services left them in the worst possible place in the run-up to 2020.
“Our hospital doctor members, their colleagues, patients and the wider public were all victims of this incompetent lack of contingency planning and effectively left to fend for themselves when the pandemic hit. Countless deaths, the trauma of working in horrific circumstances and lengthy lockdowns have scarred lives and an entire generation as a result.
“The fact is that the next pandemic is a matter of when, not if. Never again can a government be allowed to neglect its responsibility to plan, stockpile and protect its front-line workers and the wider population.
“Baroness Hallett’s recommendations must be implemented in full and without delay. Those responsible must be held to account.”
Elkan Abrahamson, head of major inquests and inquiries at Broudie Jackson Canter, who represents the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group of almost 7,000 members, said:
We are delighted to see that Baroness Hallett has listened and taken on board most of our recommendations to prevent a disaster like the Covid pandemic ever happening again.
However, it is extremely disappointing that the vulnerable were ignored in the recommendations and there were no proposals for dealing with racial inequality, health inequalities or the effects of austerity.
We will be taking this up with the government. We will be going back to the chair in the future to ask her to ensure that her crucial recommendations are carried out.
Report 'does not go far enough', say bereaved families
Lady Hallett “has not gone far enough” in setting out how the UK can improve inequalities that were laid bare during the pandemic, bereaved families have said.
A spokesperson for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group, speaking outside the UK Covid-19 Inquiry on Thursday, said:
We, the bereaved families, whose experiences speak to the very heart of what went wrong, are relieved to see many of our recommendations reflected in Lady Hallett’s report, in particular those that address the structures required to ensure that the UK is prepared and resilient to face the inevitable future pandemic.
However, while the inquiry has diagnosed much of what undermined our response, Lady Hallett has not gone far enough in setting out how we can challenge, address and improve inequalities and capacity of public services as opposed to just understanding the effects of these failures.
We ask for this government to produce a plan to address health inequalities and in its first 100 days conduct a cross-departmental audit into pandemic preparedness.
We are also calling for the government to establish a minister for resilience and preparedness. We need somebody with ultimate responsibility for an emergency response who we can hold to account.
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Meanwhile, the Green Party warned that the UK “is in an even worse position to deal with a pandemic today” than it was four years ago because of the NHS crisis.
North Herefordshire MP Ellie Chowns said:
Our thoughts today are with the families of the over 230,000 people who have died from Covid-19, the key workers who risked their lives to keep the country going and countless others who had to make terrible sacrifices when Covid-19 first struck.
As this report lays bare the awful truth is that many of those deaths, and the subsequent lengthy lockdowns we had to endure to bring cases down, would have been avoided if better preparation had been in place. We simply can never allow these failures to be repeated.
The lessons of the “systematic and political failings” in preparing for the coronavirus pandemic must be “learnt swiftly”, the Liberal Democrats said.
The party’s health spokesperson Daisy Cooper said:
Today’s damning findings confirm in black and white what we unfortunately already knew.
Our hearts go out to all those who lost loved ones during the pandemic, yet sadly these findings of systematic and political failings will provide little comfort for thousands of grieving families.
Today must be a moment for change. The country was badly let down during the pandemic and this new government must ensure that lessons are learnt swiftly.
The Liberal Democrats called for an inquiry in 2020, and we will continue to demand that the full facts are known about every aspect of this catastrophic failure.
Government policy 'failed UK citizens', says PM
Keir Starmer said the UK Covid-19 Inquiry’s report confirmed that “the UK was under-prepared for Covid-19” and that policy “failed UK citizens”.
The prime minister said in a statement:
The memories brought about by the inquiry will be very difficult for many people. My heartfelt sympathies go out to all those who lost a loved one during that time.
The pandemic showed us that the backbone of Britain is made up of those committing their lives to service - key workers like carers, nurses, paramedics, cleaners and teachers. They put themselves in the eye of the storm, and together with people up and down the country, many of them lost their lives or are still living with the impact of the virus.
Today’s report confirms what many have always believed - that the UK was under-prepared for Covid-19, and that process, planning and policy across all four nations failed UK citizens.
The safety and security of the country should always be the first priority, and this government is committed to learning the lessons from the inquiry and putting better measures in place to protect and prepare us from the impact of any future pandemic.
Key flaws in preparedness highlighted by Covid inquiry report
Key flaws in preparedness highlighted in the report included:
The UK being prepared for the wrong pandemic: influenza. When Hancock became health secretary in July 2018 his day one briefing said: “Pandemic flu is the government’s highest risk”.
The institutions responsible for emergency planning being “labyrinthine in their complexity”.
The government’s sole pandemic strategy (for flu) being outdated – it was from 2011 – and lacking adaptability.
A failure to appreciate the impact of the pandemic and the response to it on ethnic minority communities, and people in poor health and with other vulnerabilities.
A failure to learn from earlier civil emergency exercises and disease outbreaks.
A “damaging absence of focus” on systems such as test, trace and isolate that could be scaled up.
A lack of adequate leadership in the preceding years, with ministers, untrained in civil contingencies, not being presented with a broad range of scientific opinion. They also failed to sufficiently challenge the advice they got, which in any event was beset by “groupthink”.
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The human and financial cost and sacrifice of the coronavirus pandemic “will have been in vain” unless radical change is implemented, Lady Hallett warned.
Concluding her statement, she said she expected each organisation responsible for applying her recommendations to set out within six months how it plans to respond.
All recommendations must be implemented in order to bring about the changes needed, Hallett said.
“Unless the lessons are learned and fundamental change is implemented the human and financial cost and sacrifice of the Covid-19 pandemic will have been in vain,” she said.
“The harrowing accounts of loss and grief given by the bereaved witnesses and others who suffered during the pandemic serve to remind us why there must be radical reform.”
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Lady Hallett said that UK citizens were “failed”.
“I have no hesitation in concluding that the processes, planning and policy of the civil contingency structures across the UK failed the citizens of all four nations,” she said.
“There were serious errors on the part of the state and serious flaws in our civil emergency systems. This cannot be allowed to happen again.”
Updated
Test, trace and isolate containment system 'did not exist', inquiry finds
The chair of the UK Covid-19 public inquiry said that one of the first lines of defence in a pandemic is “containment” but a system of test, trace and isolate “did not exist in the UK when the pandemic struck”.
Lady Hallett said:
To give but one vitally important example: one of the first lines of defence to a pandemic is containment and this requires a system of test, trace and isolate that can be rapidly scaled up to meet the demands of a major outbreak.
This did not exist in the UK when the Covid- 19 pandemic struck. The UK government’s sole pandemic strategy, from 2011, was outdated and lacked adaptability.
It was never in fact properly tested. The UK government neither applied it nor adapted it and the doctrine that underpinned it was ultimately abandoned, as was the 2011 strategy itself.
Lady Hallett said there were “fatal strategic flaws underpinning the assessment of the risks faced by the UK.
She said: “The institutions and structures responsible for emergency planning were labyrinthine in their complexity.
“There were fatal strategic flaws underpinning the assessment of the risks faced by the UK, how those risks and their consequences could be managed and prevented from worsening and how the state should respond.”
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UK 'ill prepared' to deal with pandemic
The UK was “dangerously mistaken” to believe that it was one of the best prepared countries in the world to respond to a pandemic, Lady Hallett said.
In 2019, it was widely believed in Britain and abroad that the UK was “not only properly prepared but was one of the best-prepared countries in the world to respond to a pandemic,” she said.
“This belief was dangerously mistaken. In reality, the UK was ill-prepared for dealing with the whole-system civil emergency of a pandemic, let alone the coronavirus pandemic that actually struck.
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UK will face 'immense suffering' if not better prepared for future pandemics
Lady Hallett said the UK will face “immense suffering” if it is not better prepared for the next pandemic.
Releasing her first report on pandemic preparedness and resilience in the UK, she said:
There will likely be a next time. The expert evidence suggests it is not a question of ‘if’ another pandemic will strike but ‘when’.
The evidence is overwhelmingly to the effect that another pandemic - potentially one that is even more transmissible and lethal - is likely to occur in the near to medium future.
That means that the UK will again face a pandemic that, unless we are better prepared, will bring with it immense suffering and huge financial cost and the most vulnerable in society will suffer the most.
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Report calls for UK-wide civil emergency strategy
Among the recommendations in the report are:
The leader or deputy leader of each of the four nations should chair a Cabinet level committee responsible for civil emergency preparedness.
A UK-wide pandemic response exercise should run at least every three years and a new UK-wide whole-system civil emergency strategy put in place.
External “red teams” should regularly challenge the principles, evidence and advice on emergency plans
An independent statutory body to advise the UK government and devolved administrations should be set up and consult with voluntary groups and council-based directors of public health on civil emergency preparedness and response.
The findings about the UK’s structures and procedures in place to prepare for and respond to a pandemic are the first from the statutory inquiry into the Covid-19 and are based on six weeks of hearings last summer as well as the disclosure of thousands of documents.
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Covid inquiry finds Hancock and Hunt failed to prepare UK for pandemic
The former health secretaries Jeremy Hunt and Matt Hancock have been criticised for their failure to better prepare the UK for the pandemic in a damning first report from the Covid inquiry that calls for a major overhaul in how the government prepares for civil emergencies.
Hunt, who was health secretary from 2012 to 2018 and Hancock who took over until 2021 were both named by the chair to the inquiry, Lady Hallett, for failing to rectify flaws in contingency planning ahead of the pandemic that claimed over 230,000 lives in the UK.
The UK government had focused largely on the threat of an influenza outbreak despite the fact that coronaviruses in Asia and the Middle East in the previous years meant “another coronavirus outbreak at a pandemic scale was foreseeable” and to overlook that was “a fundamental error”.
“It was not a black swan event,” said Hallett in a 240-page report that concluded: “the processes, planning and policy of the civil contingency structures within the UK government and devolved administrations and civil services failed their citizens”.
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A key finding will centre on whether it was reasonable for the government to have focused planning for an influenza, rather than coronavirus, pandemic.
Another will be on how little planning was given to the need for, and consequences of, lockdowns.
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group is calling for urgent reforms from the Labour government, including the appointment of a secretary of state for resilience and civil emergencies, a standing scientific committee on pandemics, crisis training for ministers and officials and the establishment of a “red team” to challenge pandemic preparations.
A spokesperson said:
Plans for a pandemic were fatally inadequate; they were outdated, poorly communicated across the government, disregarded the impact of inequalities and were primarily concerned with pandemic flu.
Such pandemic planning as there was did not address inequalities, and nothing was done to mitigate vulnerabilities caused by structural discrimination, institutional racism or health inequalities. Our loved ones, colleagues and communities paid the price for that failure.
Prof Smeeth also said that a pandemic treaty with other countries was “essential”.
He added:
We should find ways to collectively defend our whole planet and commit to sharing data, know-how and resources - such as surveillance tools, protective equipment and vaccines - on a global scale while we can.
We don’t know what the next dangerous outbreak will be, what we do know is that it’s going to happen. We need to seize the moment to agree new ways of working, and deeper collaboration so that we are better prepared for the next global disease threat when it arrives.
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Academics have said it is a question of “when not if” another pandemic will hit, so it is hoped that recommendations, if implemented, could put the UK in a better starting place to face a new and unknown disease - known by many as Disease X.
One leading expert said that officials should adopt counter terrorism-like approaches to prepare for future pandemic threats.
Professor Liam Smeeth, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), told the PA news agency:
The key lesson from the first UK Covid Inquiry report is that if the UK waits for the next pandemic to emerge, it will be too late.
The fight against pandemics is like counter-terrorism, we must use similar approaches such as gathering and sharing the best intelligence on global disease threats and joining forces to confront outbreaks before they become pandemics.
Like terrorists, lethal viruses take no notice of national borders and can strike anywhere at any time.
We have to work with global partners to combat this global threat: this means not just improving our planning, surveillance, and ability to respond in the UK, but supporting those on the front line fighting outbreaks around the world.
Brenda Doherty, a spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, a group representing nearly 7,000 bereaved people, said the report – the first of at least 10 planned in the next two to three years – would be “a huge milestone for bereaved families like mine”.
Doherty’s mother, Ruth Burke, 82, died from Covid acquired in hospital while awaiting discharge in March 2020 in Northern Ireland.
She said:
The years leading up to [this] have been draining. We know, however, that the inquiry’s recommendations have the potential to save lives in the future, if lessons have been learned from the loss of our loved ones.
The report is expected to highlight the UK’s focus on preparing for a flu pandemic instead of a coronavirus pandemic.
Harriet Hallett may highlight how austerity measures led to public health cut backs, PA reported. She could potentially also comment on preparations surrounding personal protective equipment (PPE) and a government focused on Brexit.
Key politicians, scientists and health experts appeared as witnesses during the first module of the inquiry - which is titled Resilience and Preparedness.
Former health secretaries Matt Hancock and Jeremy Hunt were put under the spotlight during oral evidence sessions, alongside the former prime minister David Cameron and former levelling up secretary Michael Gove.
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Good morning and welcome to our live blog following the release of the first report from the long-running UK Covid inquiry.
It will be released at noon BST and will deliver an eagerly-awaited verdict on how Brexit and austerity affected the country’s readiness for the pandemic in which more than 200,000 people died in the UK.
Politicians including David Cameron, George Osborne and Matt Hancock are braced to face criticism about their decision-making and priorities in the run-up to the outbreak of the disease in early 2020.
I’m Tom Ambrose and will be following all the news and reaction. In the meantime you can read our excellent preview article from my colleague, Robert Booth.
