Parliamentary activity

Answering body: Department of Health and Social Care

Estates Safety Fund schemes were selected by the National Health Service working with trusts and integrated care boards to prioritise the most urgent operational and safety risks, including ventilation requirements, and the schemes that will make the greatest difference to patients and staff.

No data is held on the proportion of the funding that will be directed towards the use of high-efficiency particulate air filters.

Answering body: Department of Health and Social Care

The Government recognises that the pandemic had a profound and lasting impact across society, and its effects were felt particularly acutely within the health and social care system. We are deeply grateful to everyone across health and social care in the four nations who contributed to the country's response.

The Government is committed to learning the lessons of the COVID-19 Inquiry and we are investing in and reforming the health service to ensure it is fit for the future and available for people when they need it. We will consider the inquiry’s findings and recommendations carefully and respond in full in due course.

The health and wellbeing of all National Health Service staff is a top priority, and we want to ensure that there is better support for staff in the future.

NHS England offers a range of health and wellbeing resources, as well as the National Staff Mental Health Treatment Service to provide support for those with more complex mental health needs.

The 10-Year Health Plan announced the introduction of Staff Treatment Hubs that will focus on mental health and musculoskeletal issues, the two main reasons for sickness absence in the NHS. In addition, a series of staff standards for modern employment will be launched in April 2026. These will tackle the issues that really matter to staff such as support to work healthily and flexibly, and tackling violence, racism, and sexual harassment in the workplace.

Answering body: Department for Education

The government will consider the report’s findings and recommendations and will provide a full response to the report in due course.

Answering body: Department of Health and Social Care

Ensuring the United Kingdom is prepared for a future pandemic is a top priority for the Government, and we are embedding lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic in our approach to pandemic preparedness. We aim to have flexible, adaptable, and scalable capabilities that can respond to any infectious disease or other threat, rather than relying on plans for specific threats.

The Government is committed to learning the lessons from the UK COVID-19 Inquiry to protect and prepare us for the future. On 16 January 2025, the Government published its response to the inquiry’s module one report on resilience and preparedness. A copy of the response is attached. The Department has committed, as part of this response, to publishing a new pandemic preparedness strategy that will show how we are embedding our new approach to pandemic preparedness.

In the 2024 Autumn budget, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that £460 million of investment has been allocated to strengthen the UK’s pandemic preparedness and health protection, including replenishing personal protective equipment, vaccine, and medicines stockpiles.

In autumn 2025, the Department and the UK Health Security Agency conducted Exercise Pegasus, a national exercise on the UK’s preparedness for a pandemic. It tested our ability to respond to a pandemic, involving all regions and nations of the UK and thousands of participants. The exercise has provided valuable experience which is being used to inform our strategy and planning. The Government has committed to communicating the findings through the post-exercise report this winter.

An established clinical countermeasures programme is a core component of our pandemic preparedness and set of response capabilities. These countermeasures include personal protective equipment and hygiene consumables, as well as vaccines and therapeutics, such as influenza antivirals and antibiotics.

Answering body: Department of Health and Social Care

The Government has committed to communicating the findings and lessons of the exercise as recommended by the COVID-19 Inquiry, and a post-exercise report will be delivered in due course. The evaluation of Exercise PEGASUS is ongoing and once complete, recommendations will be generated. The implementation and appropriate governance of these recommendations and findings is being actively considered as part of the United Kingdom’s commitment to pandemic preparedness. Exercise PEGASUS has provided valuable experience which is being used to inform the pandemic preparedness strategy and response plans.

Answering body: Department of Health and Social Care

The Government has committed to communicating the findings and lessons of the exercise as recommended by the COVID-19 Inquiry, and a post-exercise report will be delivered in due course. The evaluation of Exercise PEGASUS is ongoing and once complete, recommendations will be generated. The implementation and appropriate governance of these recommendations and findings is being actively considered as part of the United Kingdom’s commitment to pandemic preparedness. Exercise PEGASUS has provided valuable experience which is being used to inform the pandemic preparedness strategy and response plans.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

The Government remains committed to learning the lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic and to better prepare the country for future pandemics.

The Government will consider the findings and recommendations in the Module 2 report in detail and respond in due course.

Answering body: Treasury

HM Treasury has a comprehensive framework for assessing and managing potential risks to the economic and fiscal outlook, including those posed by new diseases. This framework involves systematic monitoring through internal risk monitors, risk governance forums, and collaboration with other government departments such as the Cabinet Office and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). In escalatory scenarios, such as where a new disease with high transmission rates emerges, HM Treasury is prepared to conduct economic impact assessments to inform policy and response plans.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, HM Treasury officials engaged with other Government departments to consider the implications of long COVID, including assisting with preparations for the DHSC long COVID Oversight Board. HM Treasury will provide more information on its efforts to understand the economic implications of long COVID-19 to the ongoing COVID-19 inquiry.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

It is important that lessons are learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic. The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is independent of government and it is right that we allow the Chair to continue her important work. The Chair is under a statutory obligation to avoid unnecessary costs in the Inquiry’s work, and she has been clear in her intention to complete her work as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry publishes quarterly financial reports outlining the cost to date of the Inquiry. As of the end of Quarter 2 for 2024/25, the total expenditure of the Inquiry is £124.18m. New Q3 costs will be published in the usual way.

Additionally, the Cabinet Office regularly publishes government costs in responding to the Inquiry. From the start of the 2023/24 financial year to the end of Q2 2024/25, the government response costs total £64.6m.

Answering body: Department of Health and Social Care

The Chief Nursing Officer for England has stated that a range of evidence on the issue of routes of transmission of COVID-19 was presented to the COVID-19 Inquiry during their examination of the impact of the pandemic on healthcare systems across the United Kingdom.

A response from the UK Chief Nursing Officers to the letter from the Covid Airborne Transmission Alliance will be sent shortly.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

Since the introduction of the Inquiries Act 2005, there have been three inquiries which include matters which are partly or wholly devolved to Wales: the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, the Infected Blood Inquiry, and the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

The UK COVID-19 Inquiry is independent of the Government. The process, procedure and timing of the Inquiry are matters for the Chair, Baroness Hallett.

On 16th January 2023 the Chair designated the group Clinically Vulnerable Families as a Core Participant for Module 3 of the Inquiry which covers healthcare systems in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is for the Inquiry itself to provide any further detail on the important issue of how the needs of the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable will be addressed.

The Government is committed to learning from the Covid-19 Inquiry’s findings which will play a key role in informing planning and preparations for the future; it continues to work closely with the Inquiry.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

We do not yet have a figure for the costs incurred. We brought this judicial review to seek clarification on a point of law and we are pleased that the Court agreed that there was an important legal question to consider.

It acknowledged our concerns over respecting the privacy of individuals and ensuring that completely irrelevant information is returned and not retained.

Answering body: Department of Health and Social Care

The United Kingdom has flexible and well-tested pandemic response capabilities. Learning the lessons from COVID-19, we are working with the Centre for Pandemic Preparedness in the UK Health Security Agency to ensure a flexible and capabilities-based approach to pandemic preparedness which will see emergency planners develop and maintain a generic suite of response capabilities across Government. This will enable an approach that can be flexibly deployed to meet the demands of any future pandemic and provide a whole-system response.

We cannot perfectly predict the characteristics of a new pandemic pathogen and therefore our strategic approach to pandemic preparedness constantly evolves in response to new scientific information, lessons learned from prior pandemics, responses to other infectious disease outbreaks and rigorous exercises to test our response mechanisms.

Public hearings for Module 1 of the UK COVID-19 Inquiry commenced on 13 June 2023 and will run for six weeks. The Department acknowledges there are valuable lessons to be learnt from COVID-19 to inform our preparedness for future pandemics.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

Under the Inquiries Act 2005, the process, timing and procedure of the Inquiry are decisions for the Inquiry’s independent Chair, Baroness Hallett. The Chair is under a statutory obligation to avoid unnecessary costs in the Inquiry’s work and she has been clear that she intends to complete her work as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

Government departments and the devolved administrations, including Northern Ireland, are individual core participants to the UK COVID-19 Inquiry, so departments are not able to provide support to them in responding to the Inquiry.

Government departments and devolved administrations make their own decision on whether to apply for core participant status.

A core participant is an individual or organisation that has a specific interest in the work of the Inquiry with a formal role as defined by the Inquiry Rules 2006. Core participants have special benefits in the Inquiry process, including early sight of evidence and the ability to make opening and closing statements and present their position to the Inquiry.

Answering body: Treasury

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on the UK economy. Between 2019 Q4 and 2020 Q2, according to the Office for National Statistics the economy contracted by 23% - the steepest recession on record.

The success of the UK’s vaccination campaign lead to a strong recovery in GDP, with annual growth of 7.5% in 2021 and 4.1% in 2022. In both these years, GDP growth in the UK was the fastest in the G7.

The Government acted quickly to prevent catastrophic increases in unemployment during the pandemic. The Government provided up to £400 billion of direct support for the economy which helped to safeguard jobs, businesses and public services in every region and nation of the UK.

The Treasury is engaging constructively with the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, which plans to examine the Government’s responses to the pandemic.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

The final terms of reference for the UK COVID-19 inquiry were published on 28 June 2022. This followed a full and extensive public consultation process led by the inquiry’s independent chair, in addition to engagement with the devolved administrations as required by the Inquiries Act 2005.