A public inquiry into the British government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis will aim to understand the experiences of bereaved families and disparities in the effect of the pandemic on different groups, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday.
His disclosure of the details for the public inquiry, whose general remit was announced last year amid pressure from loved ones of people who had died from Covid-19, comes at a time when England has removed its Covid rules and when cases are rising sharply.
The inquiry, which will also examine the government’s response in terms of public health, the health care sector and the economy, “will play a key role in learning the lessons from this terrible pandemic and in informing our preparations for the future,” Mr. Johnson said in announcing the parameters for the investigation. “It is therefore vital that we get its terms of reference right and that people can have their say.”
Heather Carol Hallett, a retired judge, will chair the investigation. Mr. Johnson had initially been reluctant to approve a full inquiry, but eventually yielded to public pressure.
Mr. Johnson’s own government is currently under investigation by the police over a series of parties held at Downing Street while the country was under a coronavirus lockdown.
An earlier investigation by Parliament’s health and science committees noted several failures in the government’s pandemic response, particularly around the speed at which testing was carried out and policies in nursing homes that may have allowed the virus to spread rapidly among the most vulnerable.
Britain has reported an average of 54,754 new coronavirus cases per day in the last week, and government figures indicate a roughly 53 percent rise in new cases in the last seven days compared with a week earlier. The number of patients admitted to the hospital has also risen about 17 percent in that period, although the number of deaths has remained low.
