Covid inquiry reaches bittersweet' final day of witness testimony

"We will continue to fight for the inquiry's recommendations to be implemented in full, and we will push back against the growing tide of conspiracy theorists that want to ignore the evidence and politicise saving lives. Matt Fowler urged officials to use the inquiry as a blueprint to take brave, decisive, urgent action and warned that the country was still not prepared for a future crisis."

"The Covid inquiry has become the most expensive in history, with total costs now at 203.98m, covering the inquiry setup, the chair and lawyers' salaries and the running of hearings. Previously the most expensive public inquiry was the Bloody Sunday inquiry, which cost 191.2m."

"In total there were 238 public hearing days held across the UK, with 381 individual witnesses and more than 600,000 evidence documents, equating to about 5m pages of evidence. Evidence for all 10 modules has now been heard, but the inquiry chair, Lady Hallett, has published her final findings only on the first two."

The Covid-19 inquiry concluded its public hearings after becoming the most expensive public inquiry in history at £203.98 million, surpassing the Bloody Sunday inquiry's £191.2 million cost. Bereaved families, represented by Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, marked the final testimony day by emphasizing that government failings are now documented on public record. The inquiry held 238 public hearing days with 381 witnesses and over 600,000 evidence documents across 10 separate investigation modules covering preparedness, governance, healthcare, vaccines, procurement, care, testing, children, economic response, and societal impact. While evidence for all modules has been heard, inquiry chair Lady Hallett has only published final findings on the first two modules. Bereaved families urged officials to implement recommendations fully and warned against conspiracy theories politicizing pandemic response.

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