UK Covid inquiry launches with vow to be ‘listening train’

Tens of hundreds of members of the UK public will be capable to present witness testimony to the long-awaited public hearings into the Covid-19 pandemic, the lead counsel to the official inquiry promised because it opened in London on Tuesday.

Hugh Keith QC stated a “listening train” would happen alongside public hearings. It might contain specialists who will take particular person testimony, summarise and analyse it so it may be assimilated into the proof.

This might “present a possibility for folks to inform us their experiences with out the formality of giving proof”, and would “accommodate vastly extra folks”, he stated. The method could be designed to take the “accounts of tens or presumably a whole bunch of hundreds of individuals”, he added.

The dedication was aimed toward allaying the issues of teams representing the bereaved that particular person tales wouldn’t be heard. It was underlined by Baroness Heather Hallett, the retired Courtroom of Attraction choose who’s heading the probe, who promised: “Those that have suffered might be on the coronary heart of the inquiry.”

The inquiry was commissioned by Boris Johnson this 12 months earlier than he resigned as prime minister however its opening was delayed by the dying of Queen Elizabeth final month.

Its remit was so extensive that it has been damaged up into separate phases, the primary of which can tackle how nicely ready the UK was for a pandemic of its form and supply suggestions to guard the nation higher in future.

The primary witnesses, who will embody Johnson, will present proof at public hearings lasting not less than a month beginning subsequent Might.

The core members within the first a part of the inquiry will embody public well being officers and ministers together with teams representing bereaved family members.

The second part of the inquiry will scrutinise the high-level determination made as Covid took maintain, together with the timing of nationwide lockdowns and the imposition of social distancing and different restrictions.

A parliamentary report by MPs on the well being and social care committee and the science and expertise committee revealed final 12 months discovered that the delay in imposing the primary lockdown on the finish of March 2020 was a “critical error” and {that a} “significant check and hint” operation ought to have come sooner.

Different components of the inquiry will look into the effectiveness of the vaccine programme, authorities procurement, and the influence that the pandemic had on the well being and care service.

Hallett stated she was decided that the inquiry wouldn’t “drag on for many years” and pledged to make sure it was each impartial and truthful.

Almost 190,000 folks died of Covid-19 within the UK inside 28 days of testing optimistic for the illness, the inquiry heard and there have been extra deaths during which Covid might have performed a component.

“The inquiry will analyse our state of readiness for the pandemic and the response to it and decide whether or not that degree of loss was inevitable, or whether or not issues may have been finished higher,” Hallett stated.