UK Covid Inquiry Chair Defends £200m Cost

The UK public inquiry into Covid-19 has concluded its hearings, with the chair, Baroness Heather Hallett, defending the £200m cost and four-year process. The inquiry, which was established in 2022, looked at the response to the pandemic in all four UK nations.

Baroness Hallett said that completing the hearings in under four years was an extraordinary achievement, but critics have questioned the cost and duration of the inquiry. She believes that when people see the results of the inquiry's work, they will appreciate why it was set up. The inquiry received over 600,000 documents and heard from over 350 witnesses, with the terms of reference being the broadest of any public inquiry to date.

Baroness Hallett will publish eight further reports on topics such as the NHS, vaccines, and social care, with the process set to last until the first half of next year. She has already published reports on pandemic planning before 2020 and the conduct of the UK Government and devolved nations during the worst of the crisis. The cost of the inquiry so far is just over £200 million, with £100 million more spent by government departments providing documents and other information.