The Covid-19 public inquiry: what you need to know

A major inquiry into the government’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis is under way following the conclusion of a four-week public consultation.

Boris Johnson confirmed in May 2021 that a full public inquiry would go ahead, amid mounting pressure from campaigners. Following an analysis of the consultation findings, the first public hearings are expected to begin next year, led by former appeal court judge Baroness Heather Hallett.

After being announced as the UK Covid Inquiry’s chair last December, crossbench peer Hallett – who led the independent inquest into the 7/7 terror bombings in London in 2005 – said that she was “acutely conscious” of the suffering that the pandemic had caused “to so many”, reported Sky News.

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What was the aim of the public consultation?

More than 150 families from across the UK were consulted for the inquiry, along with representatives from charities, religious groups, unions and the education and healthcare sectors.

More than 20,000 responses were received in total. These responses are now be analysed in order to shape recommendations to Johnson on the final terms of reference, “which will set the topics of the inquiry’s investigations”, explained the UK Covid-19 Inquiry website.

A four-week public consultation is not a legal requirement “but follows the precedents set by the Grenfell Tower and infected blood inquiries”, said Health.org.uk.

In an open letter published on 11 March, Hallett wrote that she hoped to begin the public hearings in 2023. “I will do everything in my power to deliver recommendations as soon as possible, to ensure that in any future pandemic, the suffering and hardship many of you have experienced is reduced or prevented,” she said.

What is the inquiry likely to cover?

Topics that are likely to be explored include the use of public health powers and medical expertise and evidence; health and social care policy (including test and trace and the vaccines rollout); the impact of Covid on education and childcare; and the pandemic’s financial impacts, such as the management of furlough and sick pay.

A separate inquiry focusing on the Scottish government’s Covid response is being chaired by Lady Anna Poole, a sitting judge in the Scottish courts. According to the House of Commons Library, this inquiry is expected to launch properly in “early summer 2022” and its “terms refer specifically to the impact of pandemic decision-making on human rights”.

The omission of this term of reference from the UK inquiry has been criticised.

How long could the inquiry last?

The UK public inquiry into Covid is “likely to be one of the most wide-ranging ever undertaken”, said The Guardian’s social affairs correspondent Harry Booth, and will almost certainly last for a number of years.

Even “quite narrowly focused public inquiries” can take years, said the House of Commons Library. The information resource pointed to the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry, which “has now run for almost eight years without reporting”.

The conclusion of the UK inquiry could potentially coincide with the next general election, which is expected to take place before May 2024.

Is there public support for the inquiry?

In a poll by ICM conducted in March 2021 for The Guardian, 47% of more than 2,000 respondents said they supported “a public inquiry which has legal powers to compel people to give evidence under oath”. Only 18% were opposed, while 35% said they neither supported or opposed an inquiry, or didn’t know.

Notable supporters of the public inquiry include Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nursing and campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice.