The long-awaited independent inquiry into the UK government’s handling of Covid finally began hearing evidence this week. It will not conclude until 2026, so what did we learn from the first week?
Brexit planning ‘crowded out’ pandemic prep
On the opening day, Hugo Keith, counsel to the inquiry, said planning for a no-deal Brexit had “crowded out” government efforts to prepare for a pandemic. Operation Yellowhammer, as the Brexit planning was known, caused pandemic preparedness to stall and that it “drained resources and capacity” of Whitehall. The comments prompted outrage in the rightwing press. The Daily Express said his comments were “bonkers” and the Daily Mail said they were “troubling”. The Sun expressed fears the inquiry “could turn into a free-for-all for cynical leftwing remainers to attack Tories and their policies”.
Hancock admits lack of preparedness
Matt Hancock, the health secretary at the start of the pandemic, admitted there was a “lack of concrete preparedness plans”. Hancock is due to give evidence this month, but in a statement to the inquiry he said: “On coming into post as health secretary, I was advised that the UK was a world leader in preparations for the pandemic. It did not turn out to be the case.” Bruce Mann, a former director of the Cabinet Office’s civil contingencies secretariat, will tell the inquiry the “UK preparedness was wholly inadequate”, according to a preview of his evidence.
‘Taken by surprise’
The UK had plans for a flu pandemic, but was “taken by surprise” over a number features of the Covid pandemic. This included the need for decisions on shielding, employment support, managing disruption to schools, borders, and pharmaceutical interventions and the profoundly unequal impact of the pandemic on vulnerable and marginalised people. “Few of those areas were anticipated, let alone considered in detail,” Keith said. A lawyer for the bereaved families said the government was left to “largely make up the plan as it went along”.
The impact of austerity is being examined
The inquiry has begun to examine the effects of public sector austerity on the pandemic, as trade unions have demanded, but the political architects of the policy will only be grilled for a few hours. Addressing the inquiry’s chair, Lady Hallett, Keith said: “If you conclude that as a country we were insufficiently resilient and that in future, different political and financial choices may have to be made in order to render us better able to [deal with the] shock, you will want to say so.” David Cameron, who together with George Osborne drove through austerity, will become the first politician to appear at the inquiry when he is sworn on Monday in a session set to last for less than two hours. Lawyers for the bereaved families and the TUC fear that Cameron and Osborne will escape proper scrutiny because of the limited time involved.
Pandemic impact made worse by health inequalities
Depleted public services widened health inequalities as the UK entered the pandemic, a report by health experts warned. A scathing report for the inquiry by the epidemiologist Sir Michael Marmot and Clare Bambra said: “The UK entered the pandemic with its public services depleted, health improvements stalled, health inequalities increased and health among the poorest people in a state of decline.” Marmot told the inquiry: “The impact of the pandemic is very much influenced by pre-existing inequalities in society, including inequalities in health … You’ve got to plan for better health and narrow health inequalities, and that will protect you in the pandemic.”
Lack of testing a ‘significant weakness’
The Department of Health and Social Care admitted that Covid testing was “a significant weakness” in the early response. The Government Office for Science, which includes the chief scientific adviser, told the inquiry that the absence of a major domestic diagnostic industry and the difficulty of scaling test manufacturing was a “national weakness” that led to vulnerability.
‘A bowl of spaghetti’ organisation
A bewildering organisational chart showed to the inquiry revealed that more than 100 different bodies had a role in protecting the UK from the virus. A lawyer for the Trades Union Congress told the inquiry that it looked more “like a bowl of spaghetti than a clear and coordinated framework for cogent national response”.
Bereaved families feel shut out
Many bereaved families who want to give evidence will not get the chance to address the inquiry because of time constraints. Hallett said she was “listening” to families who gathered in the packed inquiry room but explained that because of “time constraints” they could not all be heard. “I hope that they will better understand as the inquiry progresses, the very difficult balance I have had to strike.”
