Government Formally Establishes COVID-19 Inquiry

• Published date: 05 July 2022
• Subject Matter: Food, Drugs, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Coronavirus (COVID-19), Government Measures
• Law Firm: Herbert Smith Freehills
• Author: Mr Andrew Lidbetter, Nusrat Zar and Jasveer Randhawa

The post below was first published on our Public Law blog.

The UK Government has published the final terms of reference ("ToR") for the COVID-19 inquiry (the "Inquiry"), which has now begun work. Unprecedented in its size and significance, the Inquiry will consider over a two-year period the impact of the pandemic on the UK, and how the UK Government, devolved administrations, local government, and many other parts of the state responded.

Key points

Chaired by Baroness Hallet DBE, the Inquiry will:

• Examine the COVID-19 response and the impact of the pandemic in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and produce a factual narrative, including
  • The public health response across the whole of the UK;
  • Response of the health and care sector across the UK; and
  • The economic response to the pandemic and its impact, including governmental interventions.
• Identify the lessons to be learned from the above, to inform preparations for future pandemics across the UK.

Background

The Inquiry was announced on 12 May 2021 and the draft ToR published on 10 March 2022, with the subsequent four-week consultation attracting responses from over 20,000 organisations and individuals. The Chair's recommendations and report were published on 12 May 2022. The ToR were published and the Inquiry formally established under the 2005 Inquiries Act on 28 June 2022. 11 QCs have been appointed to lead the Inquiry's investigations alongside the Chair, alongside 49 junior counsel.

The Terms of Reference

The Inquiry will scrutinise an expansive range of the Government's decision-making and public functions, including in relation to the availability and use of data; preparedness and resilience; legislative and regulatory control and enforcement; the safeguarding of public funds and management of financial risk.

Also under examination are the wide range of interventions impacting different sectors of the economy, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, loans schemes, business rates relief and grants, and the role of cost-benefit analysis in decision-making when introducing such measures.

Whilst the scope of the Inquiry did not materially change as a result of the consultation, the following differences between the draft and final ToR are worth noting:

• The unequal impact of the pandemic: The final ToR obliges the Inquiry to, in all aspects of its work, consider the disparities evident in the impact of the pandemic on different...