First Covid inquiry calls for radical government reforms

The first report of the Covid Inquiry has found that there were significant flaws in the UK's pandemic planning. 

There will be at least eight more inquiry reports covering decisions made during the pandemic.

Chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett DBE, the 217-page report called for radical reform of the systems, saying the UK government and devolved nations “failed their citizens”.

It said the UK planned for the wrong pandemic – a mild one where spread of a new virus was inevitable (like flu) - and this led to the UK turning to “untested” lockdowns.

She said the UK government’s outdated pandemic strategy, developed in 2011, was not flexible enough to adapt when faced with the pandemic in 2020.

There was also a failure to fully learn from past civil emergency exercises and outbreaks of disease.

Another significant flaw found was that ministers, who are often without specialised training in civil contingencies, did not receive a broad enough range of scientific advice and often failed to challenge the advice they did get.

Advisers were also found to have lacked freedom and autonomy to express differing opinions, which led to a lack of diverse perspectives. Their advice was often undermined by “groupthink” - a phenomenon by which people in a group tend to think about the same things in the same way.

Prime minister Keir Starmer said in a statement that the "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.”

Her report makes a series of recommendations, including taking responsibility for pandemic planning away from the Department of Health and Social Care, and creating a ministerial-level body in each nation, chaired by the leader or deputy leader, with responsibility for all types of civil emergency that every department feeds into.

She also said a new independent body should be created to advise on civil emergencies and assess the state of preparation and resilience, which includes both socio-economic and scientific expertise.

A three-yearly pandemic response exercises to stress-test plans in place should also be introduced, she added.

All recommendations must be implemented in order to bring about the changes needed, Hallett said.

While the report sets out these recommendations, a spokesperson for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group, 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.”