The UK public was “failed” by their governments’ processes, planning and policy ahead of the Covid pandemic, a public inquiry has found.
A report published today indicates that some of the “financial and human cost [of Covid] may have been avoided” had the country been better prepared for the deadly outbreak in 2020.
There were more than 235,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK up to the end of 2023.
The 83,000-word document details “several significant flaws”, including preparing for “the wrong pandemic”.
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“Never again can a disease be allowed to lead to so many deaths and so much suffering”, inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett wrote in an introduction to the report.
The report states that the UK “lacked resilience” in 2020 and was “ill prepared for dealing with a catastrophic emergency, let alone the … pandemic that actually struck”.
“The inquiry has no hesitation in concluding that the processes, planning and policy of the civil contingency structures within the UK government and devolved administrations and civil services failed their citizens”, the report said.
The inquiry also heard evidence on the potential impact of austerity measures, and states in the report that, “The massive financial, economic and human cost” is proof money spent is “vital” and “will be vastly outweighed by the cost of not doing so”.
Key report recommendations include a radical simplification of systems, holding a UK-wide pandemic response exercise at least every three years and the creation of a single, independent statutory body responsible for the preparedness and response of the whole system.
Speaking following the report’s publication, inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett warned that “there will be a next time”, with expert evidence suggesting “it’s 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,” she said.
Baroness Hallett added that there will be “immense suffering” if the UK is not better prepared for another outbreak.
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