Brexit distracted UK ministers from Covid planning, official tells inquiry

The UK was unprepared for the Covid pandemic because the government was distracted by plans in anticipation of a no-deal Brexit, a senior Cabinet Office official has said.

Katharine Hammond, the former director of the civil contingencies secretariat in the Cabinet Office, agreed that lockdowns, serious social restrictions, shielding, the collapse of the economy and the need for financial support for individuals had not been considered “in any meaningful sense”.

Her evidence came after the expert claim earlier in the day that poor people in the UK had been hit hardest by the virus – and poor people living in the north of the country were hit hardest of all – because of government cuts to health services in the years leading up to the pandemic.

Those hit worse were less well-off people living in the north of England who came from minority ethnic backgrounds, said Prof Sir Michael Marmot as he gave evidence to the independent Covid inquiry.

He added that based on previous pandemics and research, this was “entirely predictable” but that the government had failed to learn or listen. “The UK entered the pandemic with its public services depleted, health improvement stalled, health inequalities increased and health among the poorest people in a state of decline,” he said.

Prof Clare Bambra, who also gave evidence, said that Covid “acted synergistically with existing social, economic, and health inequalities to exacerbate and amplify the impacts of the pandemic but also the impacts of those existing inequalities”.

Bambra added that the government failed to learn from previous pandemics and research that showed people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and people living in areas or regions with higher rates of deprivation, and people from minority ethnic groups and those with disabilities, were much more likely to be severely affected by a respiratory pandemic.

Hammond agreed with Bambra, confirming that there had been no consideration of those who might be vulnerable to a respiratory pandemic or those who might be affected by pandemic co-morbidities.

The government failed to do the work despite its own 2016 research showing that the UK’s preparedness and response was not sufficient to cope with the extreme demands of a severe pandemic, she conceded.

Instead, it paused implementing the learning points recommended after the 2016 flu epidemic to concentrate on Operation Yellowhammer, their contingency planning for the short-term disruption anticipated under a no-deal Brexit.

Hammond admitted that the government had based its response to Covid on the original 2016 National Security Risk Assessment for flu. But that assessment was based on a 1980s scenario mapped out before the outbreaks of Mers and Sars, and despite the fact that over the past 30 years more than 30 new or newly recognised diseases had been identified.

As a result – and despite more research showing the catastrophic impact of a new and emerging disease – she said the government had failed to correctly identify the need for personal protective equipment (PPE) over a long period and in such vast quantities as was needed.

Nor had the government stockpiled sufficient antibiotics, or planned to deal with the secondary bacterial infections often associated with respiratory infection.

“The fact is that the need for an antiviral for coronavirus was not anticipated or planned for, was it?” asked the lead counsel, Hugo Keith KC.

Hammond replied: “That’s correct.”

Hammond accepted that the need for a mass contact tracing system was also not anticipated or planned for, nor were lockdowns anticipated or planned for on the scale needed.

“There were certainly discussions of some social distancing measures and school closures, but not what you would call a lockdown,” she said.

“Was there any consideration of full national lockdowns?” asked Keith. Hammond replied there had not been. “There wasn’t because the pandemic flu scenario didn’t make that an effective tool,” she said.

Limited school closures had been discussed but, admitted Hammond, “the planning was not that well developed although the potential for ministers wanting to take that decision had been identified.”

Keith asked whether the government had given any consideration or planning for total economic collapse, a furlough scheme for national support financially and for the closing of businesses and in effect the economy.

“All of those things flow from the planning for a lockdown [which didn’t happen]. So the answer follows, no,” Hammond answered.

Hammond agreed with Keith when he said: “The system was not sufficient to cope with extreme demands of a severe pandemic.”

Rivka Gottlieb, spokesperson for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign group, said: “The news that the Cabinet Office hadn’t done any preparations for lockdowns prior to the pandemic is absolutely horrific for families like mine. The risk of a pandemic was common knowledge but it’s clear that the government was caught completely unprepared.”