Public Inquiry

UK COVID-19 Inquiry

Status: Ongoing Chair: Baroness Heather Hallett Established: Apr 2022 Commissioned by: Cabinet Office

Public inquiry examining the UK's response to and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and learning lessons for the future. The inquiry is examining preparedness, decision-making, health and social care, vaccines, and the impact on different communities.

Response breakdown

55 recommendations total

35%

47%

19 (35%) — Accepted

5 (9%) — Accepted in Part

3 (5%) — Under Review

26 (47%) — Awaiting Response

2 (4%) — Not Applicable

Data last updated: 16 Jul 2026 · Data verified: 14 Jul 2026 (Claude)

Key facts

Duration (ongoing): 4 years, 3 months Total cost: £213.7m

Reports & milestones

Reports

18 Jul 2024 10 tracked recs Module 1: Resilience and Preparedness · Tracked recommendations · PDF

20 Nov 2025 19 tracked recs Module 2: Core Decision-Making · Tracked recommendations · PDF

19 Mar 2026 10 tracked recs Module 3: Impact on Healthcare Systems · Tracked recommendations · PDF

16 Apr 2026 5 tracked recs Module 4: Vaccines and Therapeutics · Tracked recommendations · PDF

14 Jul 2026 11 tracked recs Module 5: Procurement · Tracked recommendations · PDF

30 Nov 2023 0 tracked recs Every Story Matters · PDF

Timeline

12 May 2021 Inquiry announced Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a statutory public inquiry. · Source

15 Dec 2021 Chair Appointed Baroness Hallett appointed as Chair.

28 Jun 2022 Terms of Referenc… Terms of Reference finalised after consultation. · Source

04 Oct 2022 Preliminary Heari… First preliminary hearing held.

13 Jun 2023 Module 1 hearings… Module 1 examining preparedness and resilience began.

03 Oct 2023 Module 2 Hearings Module 2 examining core UK decision-making.

15 Jan 2024 Module 2 Devolved… Hearings examining Scottish, Welsh and NI decision-making.

18 Jul 2024 Module 1 report p… First report on pandemic preparedness published. · Source

Show all 15 milestones

09 Sep 2024 Module 3: Healthc… Module 3 examining impact on healthcare systems began.

20 Nov 2025 Module 2 report p… The Inquiry published its report on core UK decision-making and political governance (Modules 2, 2A, 2B and 2C). · Source

31 Dec 2025 Further Modules P… Modules on vaccines, care sector, and other topics planned through 2026.

05 Mar 2026 Hearings conclude The Inquiry concluded its public hearings with Module 10, after 32 preliminary and 242 public hearing days involving … · Source

19 Mar 2026 Module 3 report p… The Inquiry published its report on the impact of the pandemic on healthcare systems in the four nations … · Source

16 Apr 2026 Module 4 report p… The Inquiry published its report on vaccines and therapeutics (Module 4). · Source

14 Jul 2026 Module 5 report p… The Inquiry published its report on procurement (Module 5). · Source

Recommendations

19 shown (filtered)

Code	Recommendation	Addressed to	Response
COVID-M1.1	Simplify Emergency Preparedness Structures The governments of the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should each simplify and reduce the number of structures with responsibility for …	Cabinet Office	Accepted	View →
COVID-M1.3	Improved Risk Assessment Approach The UK government and devolved administrations should work together on developing a new approach to risk assessment that moves away from a …	Cabinet Office	Accepted	View →
COVID-M1.5	Pandemic Data Systems and Research The UK government, working with the devolved administrations, should establish mechanisms for the timely collection, analysis, secure sharing and use of reliable …	Cabinet Office	Accepted	View →
COVID-M1.6	Triennial Pandemic Exercises The UK government and devolved administrations should together hold a UK-wide pandemic response exercise at least every three years. The exercise should: …	Cabinet Office	Accepted	View →
COVID-M1.7	Publish Exercise Reports and Lessons For all civil emergency exercises, the governments of the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should each (unless there are reasons of …	Cabinet Office	Accepted	View →
COVID-M1.9	External Red Teams for Resilience The governments of the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should each introduce the use of red teams in the Civil Service …	Cabinet Office	Accepted	View →
COVID-M2.2	Devolved Nations SAGE Attendance The Government Office for Science (GO-Science) should invite the governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to nominate a small number of …	Government Office for Science	Accepted	View →
COVID-M2.3	UK-wide Expert Register The Government Office for Science (GO-Science) should develop and maintain a register of experts across the four nations of the UK who …	Government Office for Science	Accepted	View →
COVID-M2.4	Publish Technical Advice During Emergencies During a whole-system civil emergency, the UK government and devolved administrations should each routinely publish technical advice on scientific, economic and social …	Cabinet Office	Accepted	View →
COVID-M2.5	Advisory Group Terms of Appointment The Government Office for Science (GO-Science), the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Department of Health (Northern Ireland) should each develop …	Government Office for Science	Accepted	View →
COVID-M2.6	Enact Socio-economic Duty The UK government should bring into force in England section 1 of the Equality Act 2010, implementing the socio-economic duty. The Northern …	Cabinet Office	Accepted	View →
COVID-M2.8	Vulnerable People Framework The UK government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive should each agree a framework that identifies people who would be …	Cabinet Office	Accepted	View →
COVID-M2.10	Pandemic Decision-Making Framework The UK government and devolved administrations should set out in future pandemic preparedness strategies how decision-making will work in a future pandemic. …	Cabinet Office	Accepted	View →
COVID-M2.11	Leadership Succession Arrangements The UK government and the devolved administrations should each establish formal arrangements for covering the roles of Prime Minister and First Minister …	Cabinet Office	Accepted	View →
COVID-M2.12	Central Emergency Taskforces The response to a future whole-system civil emergency should be coordinated via central taskforces in each of the UK, Scotland, Wales and …	Cabinet Office	Accepted	View →
COVID-M2.14	Accessible Emergency Communications The UK government and the devolved administrations should each develop action plans for how government communications will be made more accessible during …	Cabinet Office	Accepted	View →
COVID-M2.16	Civil Contingencies Act Review The UK government should undertake a review of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 to assess its potential role in managing future civil …	Cabinet Office	Accepted	View →
COVID-M2.18	Devolved Nations COBR Attendance The UK government should invite the devolved administrations, as a matter of standard practice, to nominate relevant ministers and officials to attend …	Cabinet Office	Accepted	View →
COVID-M2.19	Four Nations Pandemic Structure While intergovernmental relations should be facilitated through COBR in the initial months of any future pandemic, the UK government and devolved administrations …	Cabinet Office	Accepted	View →

Parliamentary activity

242 mentions since Jul 2020

9 debates 98 questions 36 statements

03 Jun 2026 Written Question Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme
Sir Christopher Chope (Conservative)

01 Jun 2026 Written Question Covid-19 Inquiry
Jess Asato (Labour)

20 May 2026 Written Ministerial Statement UK COVID-19 Inquiry response costs for Quarter 3 25/26
Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour)

20 May 2026 Written Ministerial Statement UK COVID-19 Inquiry response costs for Quarter 3 25/26
Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour)

19 May 2026 Written Question Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme
Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat)

View all 242 mentions →

Costs

Total: £213,708,000

Period	Total	Inquiry legal	CP legal	Source
Mar 2026 (cum.)	£213,708,000	£67,344,000	£54,773,000	link
Sep 2025	£19,012,000	£10,892,000	£8,471,000	link
Mar 2025	£66,723,000	£18,704,000	£20,470,000	link
Mar 2024	£80,889,000	£20,453,000	£19,335,000	link
Mar 2023	£25,625,000	£9,210,000	£3,129,000	link