Former Health Minister responds to coronavirus investigation report
Minister Jeremy Hunt has apologised for failings in the UK’s pandemic response revealed by a coronavirus inquiry.
In its initial report released Thursday, the commission concluded that the previous administration “let down” the public with “serious shortcomings” in pandemic preparedness.
Mr Hunt acknowledged on Sunday that when he was health secretary from 2012 to 2018 he was “part of the groupthink of over-preparing for pandemic influenza and not thinking about other kinds of pandemics”.
“I offer my sincere condolences to the families. This is the most terrible tragedy that has happened to this country during the coronavirus pandemic,” he told BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
He also urged the new government to adopt the recommendations of Baroness Heather Hallett’s 217-page report.
The report said the inquiry had “no hesitation” to conclude that “the processes, plans, policies and civil services of the UK Government and the devolved administrations’ civil emergency regimes have let the public down”.
Among the problems identified in the investigation were too much focus on pandemic influenza and not enough planning for an actual pandemic, a “labyrinthine” structure for emergency plans, and “inadequate learning” from planning exercises.
In her recommendations, Ms Hallett called for a pandemic strategy to be developed and tested at least every three years, accompanied by crisis response exercises across the UK.
She said governments and political leaders should be held properly accountable on a regular basis “for their systems of preparedness and resilience”.
She also said external experts should be brought in from outside Whitehall and government to challenge and prevent the “known problem of groupthink”.
Chancellor Sir Keir Starmer said ministers would “carefully consider” Lady Hallett’s recommendations, adding that it was a “high priority” for the Government.
“The government’s first responsibility is to keep the public safe and as prime minister I personally pledge to all the families who have lost loved ones and whose lives have been changed forever that the government will learn the lessons from this investigation,” he said.
release date: Radio News Hub
