The UK Government’s failure to prepare for a ‘forseeable’ pandemic led to mass death, ‘untold misery’ and ‘economic turmoil’, the Covid-19 Inquiry has concluded.
Baroness Heather Hallett, in her first scathing report into the outbreak, claims a ‘damaging absence of focus’ on measures that would be needed to deal with a fast-spreading disease was to blame for ‘the tragedy of each individual death’.
The 240-page document also called for ‘radical reform’ in order to safeguard against future pandemics and warned: ‘It is not a question of ‘if’ one will strike but ‘when’.’
In her moving 2,000 word foreword, Baroness Hallett concluded that ‘never again can a disease be allowed to lead to so many deaths and so much suffering’.
A major flaw, according to the inquiry, was the lack of ‘a system that could be scaled up to test, trace and isolate’ people.
Baroness Heather Hallett, who chaired the Covid 19 Inquiry, highlighting the grave lack of preparedness and resilience that meant the virus tore through communities and overwhelmed the NHS
The inquiry said it had ‘no hesitation’ in concluding that the ‘processes, planning and policy of the civil contingencies structures within the UK government and devolved administrations and civil services failed their citizens’.
The report added: ‘Despite reams of documentation, planning guidance was insufficiently robust and flexible, and policy documentation was outdated, unnecessarily bureaucratic and infected by jargon.’
She acknowledged preparing for a pandemic costs money, but warned: ‘The massive financial, economic and human cost of the Covid 19 pandemic is proof that, in the area of preparedness and resilience, money spent on systems for our protection is vital and will be vastly outweighed by the cost of not doing so.
‘Had the UK been better prepared for and more resilient to the pandemic, some of that financial and human cost may have been avoided.’
She said high pre-existing levels of heart disease, diabetes, respiratory illness and obesity, and general levels of ill-health and health inequalities mean that the UK was more vulnerable.
Covid inquiry report findings
The first report from the inquiry covered how prepared and ‘resilient’ the UK was for the Covid pandemic.
In summary it found had the UK been better prepared some of the massive human and financial toll of Covid could have been avoided.
Specially it found:
- Despite planning for an influenza (also known as flu) outbreak, Britain’s preparedness and resilience was not adequate
- Emergency planning was complicated by the many institutions and structures involve
- The approach to risk assessment was flawed, resulting in inadequate planning to manage and prevent risks, and respond to them effectively
- The UK government’s outdated pandemic strategy, developed in 2011, was not flexible enough to adapt when faced with the pandemic in 2020
- Emergency planning failed to put enough consideration into existing health and social inequalities and local authorities and volunteers were not adequately engaged
- There was a failure to fully learn from past civil emergency exercises and outbreaks of disease
- There was a lack of attention to the systems that would help test, trace, and isolate. Policy documents were outdated, involved complicated rules and procedures which can cause long delays, were full of jargon and were overly complex
- Ministers, who are often without specialised training in civil contingencies, did not receive a broad enough range of scientific advice and often failed to challenge the advice they did get
- Advisers lacked freedom and autonomy to express differing opinions, which led to a lack of diverse perspectives. Their advice was often undermined by “groupthink” – a phenomenon by which people in a group tend to think about the same things in the same way
But, addressing the state’s preparedness, she added: ‘There must be radical reform. Never again can a disease be allowed to lead to so many deaths and so much suffering.’
She said planning and guidance was ‘insufficiently robust and flexible’, that policy documentation was ‘outdated, unnecessarily bureaucratic and infected by jargon’, and that advice was ‘often undermined by groupthink’.
She also acknowledged the Government’s preparedness and resilience was, ‘quite evidently under constant strain’ at the time the pandemic struck, given several Whitehall departments’ preoccupation with leaving the European Union.
The 240-page report said: ‘The evidence suggests that there were, and remain, real limits on the state’s capacity to cope with an increasing trend of multiple, complex civil emergencies happening at the same time.’
Baroness Hallett added: ‘I have no hesitation in concluding that the processes, planning and policy of the civil contingency structures across the UK failed the citizens of all four nations.
‘There were serious errors on the part of the state, and serious flaws in our civil emergency systems. This cannot be allowed to happen again.
‘Unless the lessons are learned and fundamental change is implemented, the human and financial cost and sacrifice of the Covid-19 pandemic will have been in vain.
‘The harrowing accounts of loss and grief given by the bereaved witnesses and others who suffered during the pandemic serve to remind us why there must be radical reform.’
She said the Government’s sole pandemic strategy, from 2011, ‘was outdated and lacked adaptability… and was beset by major flaws, which were there for everyone to see’.
That strategy focused on only one type of pandemic, and, she said ‘failed adequately to consider prevention or proportionality of response, and paid insufficient attention to the economic and social consequences of pandemic response’.
Consequently, she said, it was ‘virtually abandoned on its first encounter with the pandemic’ by then-Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
The report identified how leaders failed to heed the lessons from Exercise Cygnus, a three-day training scenario involving nearly 1,000 Government officials to test the UK’s response to a serious influenza pandemic.
The exercise highlighted ‘the lack of capability and capacity to surge resources in a number of key areas, including the NHS, social care and the management of excess deaths’.
However, no reference was made that the UK’s pandemic plans, policies and response capabilities were not sufficient to cope with the extreme demands of a severe pandemic during a subsequent meeting to discuss Cygnus, involving then-Prime Minister Theresa May and members of the National Security Council.
The human and financial cost of the Covid pandemic was much worse than it should have been because the UK was not adequately prepared for it, a scathing report has concluded. Pictured the National Covid Memorial Wall
Baroness Hallett made a number of recommendations, including that a similar exercise is carried out every three years, publishing the outcome.
She also suggested a ‘radical simplification’ of civil emergency preparedness and resilience systems.
She said the Government ‘could and should’ have invested in the test and trace system, which was used to try and identify how the virus was spreading.
Lockdown, one of the most divisive elements of the Covid 19 response, will be examined in further detail in a future report.
But Baroness Hallett acknowledged it ‘should be a measure of last resort’.
In a statement, the inquiry chairman said: ‘My report recommends fundamental reform of the way in which the UK government and the devolved administrations prepare for whole-system civil emergencies.
‘If the reforms I recommend are implemented, the nation will be more resilient and better able to avoid the terrible losses and costs to society that the Covid-19 pandemic brought.
‘I expect all my recommendations to be acted on, with a timetable to be agreed with the respective administrations. I, and my team, will be monitoring this closely.’
Elkan Abrahamson, who represents the Covid 19 Bereaved Families for Justice group which has almost 7,000 members, said: ‘We are delighted to see that Baroness Hallett has listened and taken on board most of our recommendations to prevent a disaster like the Covid pandemic ever happening again.
Baroness Hallett said the Government’s sole pandemic strategy, from 2011 , was ‘virtually abandoned on its first encounter with the pandemic’ by then-Health Secretary Matt Hancock. Mr Hancock pictured here giving evidence to the inquiry late last year
‘However, it is extremely disappointing that the vulnerable were ignored in the recommendations and there were no proposals for dealing with racial inequality, health inequalities or the effects of austerity.
‘We will be taking this up with the Government. We will be going back to the chair in the future to ask her to ensure that her crucial recommendations are carried out.’
This module of the inquiry held 23 days of public hearings held in central London during June and July last year.
The probe is not expected to conclude its public hearings until 2026, and is expected to cost around £200 million.