Covid inquiry report finds failures in UK and devolved government actions – Carmichael responds

Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, has today responded to the publication of the UK Covid Inquiry’s first report into the Covid-19 pandemic. The inquiry has found that flaws in UK pandemic preparations meant Covid caused more deaths and economic damage than it should have, and that the UK government and devolved nations failed citizens in their planning.

The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group has welcomed the report but said it did not go far enough on dealing with inequality, while the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has said that the government is committed to learning lessons from the inquiry and putting better protective measures in place.

Almost 227,000 people died in the UK from Covid between March 2020 and May 2023, when the World Health Organization declared the end of the global health emergency.

Mr Carmichael said:

“The Covid inquiry report confirms the impression that we have all had in recent months – that the UK as a whole and our devolved governments made avoidable mistakes in how they responded to the pandemic. First complacency and then panic appear to have been the name of the game, followed by obfuscation when it came to accountability for decisions made. 

“We have to thank Baroness Hallett for her work, and indeed for the many people affected directly and indirectly by Covid for their tireless campaigning for an inquiry into the pandemic. The completion of the inquiry report, however, is only one step on the road to a better understanding of how we respond to pandemics in the future. 

“We know that such events are likely to happen again but we also know that we cannot realistically take the same approach that we did in 2020, whether in terms of our economy or the individual impact on people’s lives. If we are to have a more successful response to future pandemics then we cannot again afford to leave discussions about the right way to react to them until the last minute – so I hope our governments will be applying their minds to this in the months to come.”