What will a Covid inquiry look like and what does it need to investigate?

There will be a full statutory independent public inquiry into the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. I was closely involved, as a journalist, in the public inquiry into the NHS care scandal at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, which was hearing evidence 10 years ago and I saw for myself the benefits and pitfalls they can have. A public inquiry under the 2005 Inquiries Act, like the one into the Mid Staffs scandal, will have wide ranging powers to compel the production of evidence by both organisations and individuals. A decade ago, I successfully challenged the chair of the Mid Staffordshire inquiry, Sir Robert Francis, to publish private evidence heard at that inquiry but it was effectively at his discretion. The Covid inquiry could well not report until after the next general election and will cost huge sums of taxpayer money.