Covid inquiry hears UK didn’t plan for lockdown, was distracted by Brexit and ‘severely hampered’ by cuts

The UK was left particularly vulnerable to Covid-19 because it had not planned for a pandemic other than flu, had suffered years of cuts to public services, and was distracted by Brexit, the opening day of the public inquiry into the UK’s response to the virus has heard.

At the start of what is likely to be months of damning evidence for Rishi Sunak and his ministers, Hugo Keith KC, lead counsel for Baroness Hallett’s inquiry, said planning for the prospect of a no-deal Brexit “crowded out” efforts to prepare for a pandemic.

And once the virus struck the UK, any planning that had been done did not envisage a nationwide lockdown, closure of schools and an effective shutdown of the economy, the inquiry heard.

The inquiry will be told by civil contingency experts that planning for a pandemic from a novel virus unlike influenza was “wholly inadequate”.

Meanwhile, the barrister representing regional public health directors said funding for their sector from central government had been cut back so much in the years leading up to the pandemic, that “at all levels that response to the Covid-19 pandemic was severely hampered”.

Baroness Hallett opened the first public hearings of her inquiry with an investigation into how prepared the UK was for a virus like Covid-19.

She told bereaved relatives that “it is on their behalf, and on behalf of the millions who suffered and continued to suffer in different ways as a result of the pandemic” that the inquiry will be carried out, adding: “Their loss will be recognised.”

Some of the families had gathered outside the inquiry, to appeal for more of their voices to be heard during the sessions.

The inquiry heard that Matt Hancock, who was health secretary for the first 18 months of the pandemic, had admitted that the UK was not prepared for Covid-19.

He has told Lady Hallett’s inquiry, in a written witness statement: “In coming into the post as health secretary, I was advised that the UK was a world leader in preparations for the pandemic. Whilst this may have been a heartfelt belief, it did not turn out to be the case when faced with what became known as Covid-19. Once we understood the threat from the disease, the lack of concrete preparedness plans became clear.”

Related Article

The former head of the government’s civil contingencies secretariat, Bruce Mann, will tell the inquiry that “whole-system preparation for a novel disease pandemic in the UK was wholly inadequate as at January 2020”, according to Pete Weatherby KC, representing Covid Bereaved Families for Justice UK.

Mr Keith said that even at this stage, before hearing the evidence, “it is apparent that we might not have been very well prepared at all”.

He added: “Very little thought was given to how, if it proved to be necessary, 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 said that Brexit “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”.

However, he added: “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.”

Steven Ford KC, on behalf of the Association of Public Health Directors, revealed that the directors were “learning about new policies and guidance at the same time as members of the public were” when the government held its daily 5pm press conferences.

Mr Ford added: “They were expected to implement these policies without the necessary structures and support mechanisms having been put in place.

“National guidance relating to pandemic preparedness did not anticipate the nature of the challenges provided by Covid-19. Full lockdown was never anticipated as a reasonable worst case scenario, so plans did not reflect the challenges that such a lockdown would raise.

“[There was] inadequate and unclear communication and support from central government, inadequate capacity in the public health workforce, inadequate funding.

“It is the view of the association that across the public health system funding and staffing levels have been run down to such an extent at all levels that response to the Covid-19 pandemic was severely hampered.”

Robin Allen KC, representing the Local Government Association and Welsh Local Government Association, said years of austerity “inevitably” affected the ability to plan and prepare for the pandemic as well as the resilience of services.

He added: “Across these points, we expect the inquiry to find that all local government services have been impacted by austerity. This, as we’ve heard, has gone on for a decade. The reductions in funding saw councils lose 60p out of every pound of funding.

“That must be seen against rising demand in key services such as adult and children social care, and homelessness support. Inevitably, this impacted the ability to plan, to prepare and resource and the overall resilience of services.”