Britain “may not have been very well prepared at all” for Covid-19, the official inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic has heard.
Hugo Keith KC, lead counsel for the inquiry, said in his opening statement on Tuesday that the nation was “taken by surprise” by “significant aspects” of the disease that has been recorded on 226,977 death certificates.
Baroness Heather Hallett opened the inquiry earlier, saying the British people deserve a “thorough investigation” into government planning for the pandemic and the events that unfolding during it.
Lady Hallett accepted that it would be a “huge task” for her team to meet its “ambitious timetable”, with the probe expected to run until the end of next year.
The inquiry has been divided into four modules: resilience and preparedness, core UK decision-making and political governance, impact of the pandemic on healthcare and vaccines and therapeutics.
Under the first module, she will examine the impact of Brexit on Britain’s readiness for the virus. Below are some of the key momentts from day one of the inquiry.
Did you lose loved ones to Covid during the pandemic? If so email matt.mathers@independent.co.uk
Day one
Chair pays tribute to people who lost their lives
Lady Hallet paid tribute to bereaved family members as she opened the first substantive hearing of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry on Tuesday, 13 June.
She said: “As people arrived at the hearing centre today they found a dignified vigil of bereaved family members holding photographs of their loved ones.
“Their grief was obvious to all. It is on their behalf, and on behalf of the millions who suffered and continue to suffer in different ways as a result of the pandemic that I intend to answer the following three questions.
“Was the UK properly prepared for a pandemic? Was the response to it appropriate? And can we learn lessons for the future?”
Testimony from bereaved
At the start of the inquiry, videos were played showing people telling their stories and describing how their family members had died alone or had been rushed to hospital.
One woman cried as she told how her father had died but then, just a few days later, her sister also died. She said she suffered guilt over the way they had died.
Another woman said she had "lost everything", while others described suffering anxiety.
People also told how they had not hugged each other at family funerals because they were sticking to Covid social distancing rules laid down by the government.
UK may not have been prepared for pandemic
The UK may not have been "very well prepared at all" to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the official inquiry’s lead lawyer has said as public hearings began.
Lead counsel Hugo Keith KC questioned on Tuesday whether the nation was equipped to offer substantial protection to the public as leaders had promised.
In his opening statement, Mr Keith said that near the start of the pandemic in March 2020 the Department of Health and Social Care, along with the three devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, published a Covid-19 action plan "setting out how they planned to tackle the coronavirus outbreak".
"The plan stated that the United Kingdom was well prepared to respond in a way that offered substantial protection to the public. Whether that was actually the case will be examined in module one.
"Even at this stage before hearing the evidence it is apparent that we might not have been very well prepared at all."
Mr Keith said the inquiry would look at whether health inequalities contributed to the UK death toll and levels of hospitalisation.
"Did the high levels of heart disease, diabetes, respiratory illness and obesity render us more vulnerable?” he said. “Had there been a slowdown in health improvement in the decade before? Had health inequalities widened?”
Very little thought given to impact of lockdowns
Mr Keith said there was “very little thought” given to the impact lockdowns could have on the country.
"Extraordinary though it may seem, given that it’s a word that’s forever seared in the nation’s consciousness, there was very little debate pre-pandemic of whether a lockdown might prove to be necessary in the event of a runaway virus, let alone how a lockdown could be avoided.
"Very little thought was given to how, if it proved to be necessary, how something as complex, difficult and damaging as a national lockdown could be put in place at all.
"Equally, there appears to have been a failure to think through the potentially massive impact on education and on the economy in trying to control a runaway virus in this way."
Mr Keith also questioned whether past experiences could have led to complacency in planning.
He added: "Was there an element of complacency based on our recent experiences, including the ranking in the Global Health Security Index? Or our response to swine flu in 2009 and the UK’s undoubted successes in ensuring Sars and Mers did not spread?
"Did our experience of the 2009 swine flu lead to concerns about overreacting?"
Brexit could have ‘crowded out’ planning for pandemic
Hugo Keith KC suggested to the Covid inquiry that preparing for Brexit "crowded out and prevented" the work that was needed to improve pandemic preparedness.
He said: "The pandemic struck the United Kingdom just as it was leaving the European Union.
"That departure required an enormous amount of planning and preparation, particularly to address what were likely to be the severe consequences of a no-deal exit on food and medicine supplies, travel and transport, business borders and so on.
"It is clear that such planning, from 2018 onwards, crowded out and prevented some or perhaps a majority of the improvements that central government itself understood were required to be made to resilience planning and preparedness.
"Did the attention therefore paid to the risks of a no-deal exit - Operation Yellowhammer as it was known - drain the resources and capacity that should have been continuing the fight against the next pandemic, that should have been utilised in preparing the United Kingdom for civil emergency?
Evidence likely to show ‘chaos’ in government
Evidence is likely to show a lack of responsibility in government and "chaos" which led to a slow reaction to a pandemic where "lost time is measured in lost lives", the Covid inquiry has been told.
Pete Weatherby KC, of Covid Bereaved Families for Justice UK, said: "The families expect the evidence will show a lack of responsibility in Government for civil emergency preparedness, with little or no ministerial leadership and the chaos of committees which led to poor planning and ultimately a reactive rather than proactive response to the virus.
"We anticipate the evidence will show that the most fundamental consequence of this was a slow reaction. And with a pandemic, time is of the essence and lost time is measured in lost lives."
Welsh government response criticised
The Welsh government’s response to the pandemic has come under fire from the barrister representing bereaved families at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.
Kirsten Heaven, addressing the inquiry on behalf of The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru, said the people of Wales are still feeling "trauma due to the devastation caused by Covid-19" and feel "let down" by government.
She added: "They have experienced first-hand what they consider to be the catastrophic failure of the Welsh government to adequately prepare for and respond to a pandemic in Wales."
Unlike Scotland, Wales has not been granted its own inquiry and Ms Heaven said the families of the bereaved are "very disappointed" in "what they consider to be an inadequate response" to the probe by the Welsh government.
She said the families were "frankly shocked by the brevity and lack of detail" of witness statements submitted by the Welsh government and its advisers to module one of the UK inquiry.
Ms Heaven added: "It also appears very disappointing that in some quarters there appears to be a reluctance by certain ministers to take political responsibility for failures to prepare for a pandemic in Wales.
"This inquiry is the only opportunity the people of Wales will have to ensure there is proper scrutiny on the decisions of the Welsh government and their advisers.
"The people of Wales want answers. They are also looking for accountability and for failures to be acknowledged so that lessons can be learned."
NHS England failed to prepare PPE stocks, BMA lawyer says
Failures of planning and preparation for personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare staff "led to the ludicrous spectacle of doctors making aprons from bin liners" during the pandemic, the official Covid-19 Inquiry has heard.
Brian Stanton, lawyer for the British Medical Association, listed the ways in which medical workers had to improvise due to the lack of adequate protective clothing.
He said: "The fact that in March 2020 NHS England assured the health and social care committee that there was sufficient supply of PPE nationally, despite stocks containing less than two weeks’ worth of most equipment, suggests serious failures of planning and preparation.
"Frontline staff often had to go without PPE, buy their own, use homemade, donated or expired items, and reuse single-use items. Staff also had to use items that were out of date, with multiple expired stickers visibly layered on top of each other.
"Many felt pressured to work without adequate protection, with consequences for their mental and physical health."
He said failures in planning and preparation had "led to the ludicrous spectacle of doctors making aprons from bin liners, because they were sturdier than the PPE equipment provided".
Politicians presided over ‘chaos’
The barrister representing bereaved families in Scotland has told the Covid-19 Inquiry that political leaders "stand accused of presiding over a carousel of chaos".
Claire Mitchell KC demanded answers as to whether politicians in the UK and devolved administrations could put aside political differences and act in the public interest, as well as justifications for delays in lockdown and the Eat Out to Help Out scheme.
She said: "Today it will be over three years since the first death from Covid-19 took place in this country and since then more than a quarter of a million people have died either directly or indirectly from Covid-19 as our leaders now stand accused of presiding over a carousel of chaos."
Ms Mitchell KC said she believes the UK’s preparedness for the Covid-19 pandemic was diminished by "years of changes to critical establishments and the effects of Brexit".
She added that despite beliefs the UK was prepared for a pandemic, "it quickly and terrifyingly became clear that we were not".
Ms Mitchell said: "Once we understood the threat from the disease, the lack of concrete preparedness plans became clear."
She told the inquiry "at best, those in charge sought to prepare for the wrong pandemic" and the UK was "woefully under-prepared for the virus that swept our shores".
She said answers from the inquiry represent a "tiny number of many questions that in the future will need to be answered".
"No-one in the UK has been unaffected by the pandemic," Ms Mitchell added.
The Covid-19 Inquiry is covering the whole of the UK, although Scotland will hold its own probe.
