The UK’s official public inquiry into Covid-19 will begin examining how Boris Johnson and his government handled the pandemic, it has been announced.
The delayed investigation is divided into modules, with teams investigating and commissioning research on different issues.
The second module will have a particular focus on the start of 2020 and the decisions taken by Johnson and the Cabinet, as well as the decisions taken in the devolved institutions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“My team and I will establish what was understood about Covid-19 at the time, what information was available in each of the UK’s four nations and how and why key decisions were made, particularly at the start of the pandemic,” said its chairman, Lady Heather Hallett, first appointed to the position in December 2021.
The inquiry will also take into account advice from the civil service, senior advisers and relevant sub-committees.
The UK’s first disease identification and response preparedness module opened in July.
The announcement comes almost three-and-a-half years after the coronavirus first hit the UK.
Preliminary hearings will be held from late autumn, with witnesses to testify in the summer of 2023.
Hallett, a retired Court of Appeal judge and colleague, said he would start using evidence given next year to build a full picture of the challenges the UK faces and the ways governments have chosen to meet them against them.
The inquiry also allows individuals, organizations and institutions to access evidence, make opening and closing statements at inquiry hearings or offer lines of questioning to counsel. The entry process begins on Wednesday and ends on September 23.
“This is a time for facts, not opinions – and I will be resolute in my pursuit of the truth,” Hallett said at the launch of the first inquiry in July.
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Ahead of the inquiries, the inquiry launched a four-week consultation and received more than 20,000 responses on the government’s draft terms of reference, on what should be investigated and from individuals badly affected by the pandemic.
“When I met those who lost loved ones earlier this year, I was struck by the devastating nature of their loss, exacerbated by the impact of the restrictions put in place at the time on their ability to grieve. Millions have experienced hardship and loss during the pandemic, and for some, life will never feel the same again,” Hallett said.
Joe Goodman, co-founder of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign, previously said all bereaved families wanted the same thing: “to make sure lessons are learned from our devastating losses to protect others in the future.” .
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