Inquiry announces autumn report publication dates for ‘Care Sector’ (Module 6) and ‘Test, Trace and Isolate’ (Module 7)

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry will publish its sixth report, ‘Care Sector’ (Module 6), on Tuesday 20 October 2026 and its seventh report, ‘Test, Trace and Isolate’ (Module 7), on Thursday 19 November 2026.

Both reports will be published on the Inquiry website at 12pm on their respective publication dates. The Chair of the Inquiry, Baroness Heather Hallett, will present her findings and recommendations in video statements on the Inquiry’s YouTube channel immediately after each publication.

Module 6 public hearings took place from 30 June to 31 July 2025.

In total, 57 witnesses gave oral evidence during Module 6 public hearings. Module 6 investigated the impact of the pandemic on the publicly and privately funded adult social care sector in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The report will consider the consequences of government decision-making – including restrictions imposed – on those living and working within the care sector, as well as decisions concerning capacity in hospitals and residents in adult care and residential homes. It will also address the steps taken in adult care and residential homes to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and will examine the capacity of the adult care sector to respond to the pandemic. Alongside this, the report will consider the human impact of the pandemic on residents and their families, including deaths in care settings, the use of Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) decisions and the restrictions placed on visits from loved ones.

Module 7 public hearings ran from Monday 12 May to Friday 30 May 2025. 

In total, 39 witnesses gave oral evidence during Module 7 public hearings as it investigated the UK’s approach to testing, tracing and isolation during the pandemic.  

The report will examine policies and strategies developed and deployed to support the test, trace and isolate systems by the UK Government and the Devolved Administrations. These include the decisions made by key bodies, other options and technologies that were available for testing and contact tracing and factors that may have influenced public compliance with self-isolation measures.

More details are included in the provisional scopes for Module 6 and Module 7. The list of Core Participants for each module can be found on the Inquiry website here (Module 6) and here (Module 7).

The Inquiry has already published reports for Modules 1 to 5 – all reports are online. 

Baroness Hallett notes the action taken to date by the four governments of the UK and expects that all recommendations from all published reports will be implemented promptly and in full. Progress on the implementation of recommendations can be tracked on the Monitoring of Inquiry Recommendations page on the Inquiry’s website.

The remaining three reports, Module 8 ‘ Children and Young People’, Module 9 ‘Economic Response’ and Module 10 ‘Impact on Society’ will be published in the first half of 2027. These reports will be published following thorough analysis of the evidence obtained by the Inquiry for each investigation.

A full list of the Inquiry’s investigations can be found in the Terms of Reference.