Covid-19 inquiry finds that government and civil service 'failed' public during pendemic

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry said in its first report that there was a “damaging absence of focus” on measures and infrastructure that would be need to effectively deal with a wide-spreading pandemic. The inquiry added that this lack of preparedness come despite the fact that a Covid-19 outbreak at pandemic level was “foreseeable”.

One major flaw of the response to the spread of the virus, according to the inquiry, included a lack of “a system that could be scaled up to test, trace and isolate”. The 217-page report added: “Despite reams of documentation, planning guidance was insufficiently robust and flexible, and policy documentation was outdated, unnecessarily bureaucratic and infected by jargon.” The inquiry, which is being chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett, also criticised a “lack of adequate leadership, coordination and oversight” from minister in the years leading up to the pandemic. In her recommendations, Lady Hallett called for a new pandemic strategy to be developed and tested every three years, as well as government and political leaders being held to account regularly, and experts from outside Whitehall to be brought in to challenge the “groupthink”.

In her foreword, Lady Hallett said: “It is not a question of ‘if’ another pandemic will strike but ‘when’. The evidence is overwhelmingly to the effect that another pandemic – potentially one that is even more transmissible and lethal – is likely to occur in the near to medium future.

“Unless the lessons are learned, and fundamental change is implemented, that effort and cost will have been in vain when it comes to the next pandemic. There must be radical reform. Never again can a disease be allowed to lead to so many deaths and so much suffering.”