The UK Covid-19 Inquiry has today (Thursday 6 March 2025) announced that the Every Story Matters online form will close for submissions on Friday 23 May 2025.
Since November 2022, the UK public has been encouraged to submit personal pandemic stories to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry as part of Every Story Matters, the largest public engagement exercise undertaken by a UK public inquiry. Every Story Matters has already received over 56,000 contributions – these have been gathered online on everystorymatters.co.uk, in person at public events, as well as through interviews and focus groups on different topics.
Every Story Matters is the public’s opportunity to share the impact the pandemic had on their life with the UK Covid-19 Inquiry – without the formality of giving evidence or attending a public hearing. Now only a few weeks remain for people to share their pandemic experiences with the Inquiry.
The tens of thousands of personal, and often very moving, stories help develop themed Records that inform the Inquiry’s investigations. The Every Story Matters Records assist the Inquiry Chair, Baroness Heather Hallett, in reaching conclusions and making recommendations for the future.
I would like to thank the public for all their support and contribution to Every Story Matters.
We want every story submitted to us at the Inquiry to matter and be used in our investigations. We are regrettably at the point when we have to finish collecting stories so we can properly analyse them and produce our Every Story Matters records, which will act as formal evidence to support our investigations.
Closing the online form on Friday 23 May is a major Every Story Matters milestone. We know how much time and emotional commitment is involved in telling us your pandemic story - we want to do everyone’s story justice, because every story really does matter.
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry has travelled to towns and cities across the country to gather stories in person in 25 locations, from Enniskillen to Ipswich, and Oban to Swansea. The Inquiry team has met with over 10,000 people across the country as part of its Every Story Matters events programme. The final public events took place in Manchester, Bristol and Swansea in February 2025.
To date the Inquiry has released two records, the first detailing the public’s experiences of Healthcare, which was released in September 2024, with the second dealing with Vaccines and therapeutics published in January of this year. Each record will be presented to the Chair and will help shape her recommendations for the future.