UK Covid-19 Inquiry officially launched

21 July 2022

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry was officially launched by its chair Baroness Heather Hallett.

The inquiry is already gathering evidence with preliminary hearings timetabled for later this year, and the first witnesses scheduled to be called in spring 2023.

The Inquiry will take a modular approach to its investigations:

Module 1 will examine the resilience and preparedness of the UK for the coronavirus pandemic.

Module 2 will be split into parts and will examine core political and administrative governance and decision-making by the UK government. Modules 2A, 2B and 2C will address the same overarching and strategic issues from the perspective of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and hearings will take place in each nation/jurisdiction.

Module 3 will investigate the impact of Covid, and governmental and societal responses to it, on healthcare systems, including on patients, hospital and other healthcare workers and staff.

The Inquiry’s first procedural hearings will begin in September and October of this year, for Modules 1 and 2. Public hearings for Module 1 will begin in spring 2023 for Module 1 and summer for Module 2. More information on Module 3 timings will be available in due course.

Pete Weatherby QC will be leading a team, including Kate Stone and Mira Hammad, representing the ‘Covid Bereaved Families for Justice’ group and more than 1,300 individual family members from the group.

Entirely separately, Anna Morris will be leading the team, including Christian Weaver, representing more than 200 people who have experienced severe health impacts from the Covid 19 vaccine.

Our inquest and inquiries team has significant expertise and experience in the most complex and high-profile of inquests and public inquiries.