The UK Covid-19 Inquiry Newsletter dated August 2024.
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Message from Samantha Edwards, Director of Communications and Engagement
Welcome to our August edition of the Inquiry newsletter. It was a busy July, during which we published the Inquiry’s Report on Module 1: Resilience and Preparedness. We are now preparing to open public hearings for our Module 3 investigation into healthcare systems across the UK. We share information about how to watch these hearings later in the newsletter.
The Inquiry will hear evidence in relation to a wide range of important issues within the Module 3 scope (for which see our website). These include how the pandemic impacted people providing and receiving healthcare during 2020-2022. We understand that discussion of these issues may be difficult for some of you – if you do need to talk to someone as we approach these hearings, you will find information about support when engaging with the Inquiry on our website.
In September we will be publishing the first of our Every Story Matters records. This will summarise the experiences shared with us that relate to healthcare. It will assist legal teams throughout the hearings and Baroness Hallett as she prepares her findings and recommendations following this investigation. Future records will document experiences shared with us in relation to a range of important areas, including social care, vaccines, children and young people and the economic response to the pandemic. These will be submitted to the Chair as part of the relevant investigations as evidence. We will provide more information about the Every Story Matters record in the next newsletter.
I would like to reiterate the value of sharing your experiences with us via Every Story Matters and thank all those who have contributed to date. By doing so you will have the opportunity to tell the Inquiry how the pandemic affected you and ensure that Baroness Hallett’s findings are informed by real experiences.
On this note, our Every Story Matters events are also continuing, with the team having visited multiple locations across England and Wales over the summer. Having recently held events in Ipswich and Norwich, we are now preparing to go to Oban and Inverness in Scotland in early September. We provide more information about these and other events in this newsletter.
Thank you for your interest in the Inquiry and I look forward to seeing some of you at our London hearing centre for our upcoming hearings.
First preliminary hearing for our Module 8 investigation into the impact of the pandemic on children and young people
The first preliminary hearing for our investigation into the impact of the pandemic on children and young people (Module 8) will take place on Friday 6 September, starting at 10am. This hearing will be open to the public to attend. A seat reservation system is in place and the booking form will go live on Tuesday 27 August at 12pm, which you can find on the public hearings page of the website.
How to watch our public hearings for our Module 3 investigation into the impact of the pandemic on healthcare systems
Our hearings will take place at our London hearing centre, Dorland House, from Monday 9 September to Thursday 28 November. There is a two-week break from Monday 14 to Friday 25 October during which some preliminary hearings for other investigations will take place. The timetable for hearings will be published on Thursday 5 September on the Module 3 hearings page.
There are a number of ways in which you can follow our hearings:
Watching in person
Hearings at Dorland House will be open to the public to attend. A booking system will be in place. More information about this and the reservation form can be found on the public hearings page, where you will also access our Dorland House user guide. The form goes live at midday every Monday for the following week of hearings.
Watching online
Hearings will be livestreamed on our YouTube channel, where we also upload recordings of past hearings.
If you are part of a group or organisation and want to watch the hearing with other people, we have provided advice on how to do this.
What’s coming up?
The hearing timetable will be published on our website the week before each week of hearings begins. If you haven’t yet done so then you can also subscribe to our weekly hearing updates, which will provide a summary of witnesses and key issues examined that week as well as a look-ahead to the following week of hearings. You can subscribe via our newsletter page.
Facts and figures about our investigation into healthcare
As we approach our Module 3 public hearings here are some facts and figures about Module 3:
- 36 Core Participants are involved in the investigation into the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on healthcare systems across the UK. You can read more about what or who a Core Participant is and their role in the Inquiry in the FAQ section of our website.
- 98 witnesses will give oral evidence.
- There will be 41 days of public hearings at which the Chair will hear oral evidence, taking place over 10 weeks and starting on Monday 9 September.
- 208 formal requests for evidence have been issued to individuals and organisations.
- Over 16,000 documents have been disclosed to Core Participants, including the Every Story Matters: Healthcare record.
Every Story Matters public events
Share your story in towns and cities across the UK
The Inquiry is travelling to towns and cities across the UK, to give you the opportunity to share your pandemic experiences with the Inquiry in person. We hold these Every Story Matters events to reach a range of communities across the UK to ensure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to find out about Every Story Matters and share their experience with the Inquiry. Every story we hear will contribute to the work of the Inquiry and help us build a picture of how the pandemic affected people across the country.
This month we visited Ipswich and Norwich and spoke to over 700 people.
With the help of Community Hub Ipswich CIC, we spoke to owners of small businesses in Ipswich about their experiences of the pandemic. We also visited the Leicester Mela, where we spoke to South Asian communities in the Midlands about their experiences of the pandemic.
We would like to thank all the organisations who supported us in delivering these events and everyone who spoke with us in all the locations we visited.
Clockwise from top left: the Inquiry team preparing to speak with members of the public at our Every Story Matters pop-up stand in Ipswich; Secretary to the Inquiry, Ben Connah, at our event in Ipswich Town Hall; our stand at The Forum, Norwich; our pop-up stand outside the venue in Norwich; at the Leicester Mela
Secretary to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, Ben Connah, who attended the event in Ipswich, said:
Every story we heard was unique and incredibly important. We have heard of loss and hardship, but also stories of bravery and communities coming together to help each other.
“The Inquiry is looking at every part of the UK and we are travelling throughout the country over the next six months. There are millions of stories out there about people’s experiences of family life, health and social care, living with isolation, mental health, fear, confusion, changes in the workplace and home-schooling. We want to hear them all, to help us build a picture of how everyone was affected by the pandemic and help us learn lessons for the future.”
You can read more about these visits on our website.
Our next events will take place in Inverness and Oban in September. Details are below:
| Location | Date(s) | Venue/Times |
|---|---|---|
| Inverness | Tuesday 3 September 2024 | Spectrum Centre 10am – 4.30pm |
| Oban | Wednesday 4 – Thursday 5 September 2024 | The Rockfield Centre 10am – 4.30pm |
Later this year we will be visiting Southampton, Coventry, Nottingham and Leicester. Please see the Every Story Matters events page for more information.
An opportunity for readers to ask a question about the Inquiry
In response to a suggestion from a subscriber via our feedback form, we are offering the opportunity to our readers to ask questions about the Inquiry. If there is something that you would like to know more about, whether it is in relation to our hearings, Every Story Matters, or something else then let us know by sending your questions via our newsletter feedback form. We aim to answer a selection of these in future newsletters and the rest will help us to know what we need to explain better in our newsletter or on our website.
Bereaved forum
Did you lose a loved one during the pandemic? Do you want to get more involved in the Inquiry’s work?
The Inquiry has set up a ‘bereaved forum’ – which is a group of people who lost loved ones during the pandemic, who are consulted on aspects of our work. Forum participants provide their advice based on their personal experiences to inform the Inquiry’s approach to Every Story Matters and commemoration.
The bereaved forum is open to anyone who lost a loved one during the pandemic between 2020 and 2022.
Those on the bereaved forum will receive a regular email detailing opportunities to provide the Inquiry with advice on our Every Story Matters and commemoration work.
If you are interested in joining the forum mailing list, please email engagement@covid19.public-inquiry.uk.
If you need to talk to someone about losing a loved one then you can contact our emotional support provider, Hestia, by calling 0800 2465617 or emailing covid19inquiry.support@hestia.org. More information is available on our website.