UK 'failed citizens' with flawed Covid-19 pandemic plans.

Major flaws in the UK’s planning meant the Covid-19 pandemic caused more deaths and economic costs in the UK than it should have, the first report of the Covid Inquiry says.

The 217-page report called for radical reform of the systems, saying the UK government and devolved nations “failed their citizens” through poor pandemic planning as, by the end of 2023, 235,000 people had died from Covid-19.

Plans for the wrong pandemic, a mild one during which spread of a new virus was inevitable, were followed and this led to the UK turning to “untested” lockdowns, the report said.

‘Groupthink’ by scientists and too little challenge from ministers was partly to blame, the report added but it also pointed out the UK lacked resilience, with high rates of ill-health and public services running close to, if not beyond, capacity.

The report is expected to be the first of at least nine from the Covid Inquiry, covering everything from political decision making to vaccines.

Inquiry chair, Baroness Hallett, said the UK was “ill-prepared for dealing with a catastrophic emergency, let alone the coronavirus pandemic. Never again can a disease be allowed to lead to so many deaths and so much suffering.”

Recommendations in the report including taking responsibility for pandemic planning away from lead-body, the Department of Health and Social Care, and creating a ministerial-level organisation in each nation, chaired by the leader or deputy leader, with responsibility for all types of civil emergency, which every department would report to.

Others include setting up a new independent body to advise on civil emergencies and assess the state of preparation and resilience, which includes both socio-economic and scientific expertise, and carrying out pandemic response exercises to stress-test plans every three years.

Baroness Hallett said she wants to see her recommendations acted on quickly, with many in place within six months or a year.

She added: “The expert evidence suggests it is not a question of if another pandemic will strike, but when."

A spokeswoman for the Covid 19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, Prof Naomi Fulop, said the report was “hard-hitting and clear-sighted” and urged the new government to adopt the recommendations.

However, she said the inquiry did not go far enough in terms of the inequalities within society, and the state of public services, which undermined the UK’s ability to respond,

She added: “Even the best-laid plans won’t save lives unless they address, rather than just account for, the conditions that led to our inability to respond quickly, equitably and effectively.”

Baroness Hallett's report contrasted the approach taken by the UK with countries in East Asia which had learnt from outbreaks of two coronaviruses, Sars and Mers, during the past two decades.

They had plans in place to quickly ramp up test-and-trace systems, and established processes for quarantine which significantly slowed the spread of Covid, limiting the impact of the pandemic in the first few months and, in places, limiting the use of lockdowns.

Instead, the UK pandemic strategy dated back to 2011 and was based on the idea that spread of a new virus was inevitable, rather than one already known about.

The report said the UK government and its advisers had been “lulled” into a false sense of security by the swine flu pandemic of 2011, which turned out to be mild.

It added that the UK needed to be ready to ‘scale up’ test-and-trace systems as well as increase NHS capacity and called for plans to be put in place to protect the most vulnerable people.

The report said part of the blame for these failings lay with the ‘groupthink’ prevalent in its planning.

The scientific advice received by ministers was too narrow and there was too little consideration given to the socio-economic impacts, it said.

It also said that ministers did not do enough to challenge what they were being told, and there was not sufficient freedom or autonomy in how the various advisory groups were set up for dissenting voices to be heard.

The creation of an independent body drawing in expertise from science, economics and society would help rectify that, the report concluded.