Ministers will “carefully consider” reforms proposed by the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, Sir Keir Starmer has said, after its first report found British citizens were failed by the previous government during the pandemic.
Inquiry chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett has made 10 recommendations to avoid another crisis with the same scale of death and financial cost, set out in findings published on Thursday.
Among them were a requirement to carry out national response exercises every three years and the creation of external “red teams” of experts to challenge “the acute problem of groupthink” in government.
In a written ministerial statement afterwards, Sir Keir said he was “personally committed” to learning the lessons of the pandemic.
Sir Keir said: “The Government’s first responsibility is to keep the public safe, and as Prime Minister I am personally committed to each and every family that lost loved ones, and whose lives were changed forever, that this Government will learn the lessons from the inquiry.
“This means ensuring that the UK is prepared for a future pandemic, as well as the broadest range of potential risks facing our country. That is a top priority for this Government and what everyone should rightly expect from a Government working in their service.
“I would like to thank Baroness Hallett and her team for their thorough work on this report. The Government will carefully consider all of the findings and recommendations of the report in the context of the Government’s overall approach to resilience.”
The Government is facing pressure from politicians and bereaved families to accept the recommendations and learn lessons quickly amid warnings that another pandemic is highly likely to emerge in the future.
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said “failure to prepare is indefensible” and called for the creation of a dedicated minister to oversee preparedness for a future crisis.
“We ask for the Government to produce a plan to address health inequalities, and in its first 100 days conduct a cross-departmental audit into pandemic preparedness,” a spokeswoman said.
The lessons of the “catastrophic failure” in preparing for the coronavirus pandemic must be “learnt swiftly”, the Liberal Democrats said.
The party’s health spokesperson, Daisy Cooper, said: “Our hearts go out to all those who lost loved ones during the pandemic, yet sadly these findings of systematic and political failings will provide little comfort for thousands of grieving families.
“Today must be a moment for change.”
The Green Party warned that the UK “is in an even worse position to deal with a pandemic today” than it was four years ago because of the NHS crisis.
North Herefordshire MP Ellie Chowns said: “Our thoughts today are with the families of the over 230,000 people who have died from Covid-19, the key workers who risked their lives to keep the country going and countless others who had to make terrible sacrifices when Covid-19 first struck.
“The grim truth is that the UK is in an even worse position to deal with a pandemic today than it was at the start of 2020. With our NHS overstretched, lengthy waiting lists and a demoralised workforce.
“The Government should commit to adopting the recommendations made by the Covid inquiry, but just as importantly they must match our pledge to invest £30 billion a year in the NHS by 2030, to ensure we have the infrastructure, workforce and equipment in place that we need.”
