Covid Inquiry: Response from all four UK governments was 'too little, too late'
The second report from the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has been released and says the response to the pandemic by all four UK governments was a constant case of ‘too little, too late’
Last updated 20th Nov 2025
The Covid Inquiry has found the response to the pandemic by all four UK governments was a constant case of ‘too little, too late’.
The report into the second module of the inquiry by Baroness Hallett has been released today.
The report highlights that whilst lockdowns throughout 2020 and 2021 ‘undoubtably’ saved lives, the lockdowns themselves only became inevitable due to the slow action of the four governments.
How the governments responded when covid first apperared
The report first looked at how the four governments reacted following the emergence of covid-19 at the start of 2020.
It says initial responses were affected by a lack of information and urgency. The report says that despite ‘clear signs’ about covid’s spread across the world, there was a real lack of timely and effective action from all four nations.
The lack of monitoring and testing in early 2020 also meant that the true extent of the spread of covid throughout the UK was greatly underestimated at the time.
The report says this failure to recognise the threat of covid was made worse by the misleading claims by the Department of Health and Social Care that the UK was well prepared for a pandemic. - the report from Module 1 of the UK Covid Inquiry in 2024 found that was not the case.
Finally, the report concluded that the devolved governments in the Senedd, Holyrood and Stormont relied too heavily on the decisions made by the UK Government in Westminster to lead the national response to the emerging pandemic.
The first lockdown took too long to happen
The report says that the UK government’s initial response to the emerging covid pandemic was too slow and that by the 13th of March 2020, the true number of covid cases was ‘several times higher’ than previously estimated. This then allowed the sheer number of transmissions to ‘overwhelm’ healthcare systems across the country.
On the 16th of March, the UK Government announced the first advisory restrictions, including self-isolation, household quarantines and social distancing. The inquiry found that if these same restrictions were introduced weeks earlier, then the lockdown declared on the 23rd of March might have been shorter or avoided all together.
The lack of urgency at the start of the pandemic allowed a huge rise in infections making the mandatory lockdown inevitable.
The report says lockdown should have been introduced at least a week earlier and that, if it had, up to 23,000 deaths in the first wave could have been prevented.
In a rare defence of the decisions made by the four UK governments, the inquiry says it rejects criticism about the need for the first mandatory lockdown. It says by the 23rd of March 2020, there was clear evidence to bring in a lockdown and, without it there could have been an ‘unacceptable loss of life’.
The inquiry does however warn that earlier failure to act promptly put the governments in this position in the first place.
The end of the first lockdown
When each government started the first lockdown, the report says none of them had a plan in place for how they would ease restrictions.
Most of the restrictions in England were eased on the 4th of July 2020. The inquiry says this decision was made despite advice from experts warning this was a highly risky decision.
On the other hand, restrictions in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were eased more gradually over that summer which the report says reduced the chance for needing another lockdown.
Despite this, the report says none of the four governments properly considered the risk of a second covid wave and therefore proper planning for that was not put in place.
The second covid wave
As the second wave took hold in the autumn of 2020, the inquiry says the UK Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive did not introduce new restrictions soon enough and the restrictions were not in place for long enough to prevent the spread of the virus.
The report says weak restrictions put in place in England allowed the virus to spread quickly. It also concluded that the second national lockdown could have been shorter or even avoided had a ‘circuit breaker’ been put in place in late September or early October 2020.
Both Wales and Northern Ireland introduced ‘circuit breakers’ in October 2020. However, the report says both governments failed to make the best choices to prevent the spread at the time.
In Wales, it says the Welsh Government was advised to bring in further restrictions on the 5th of October but did not act on this advice until the 23rd of that month.
In Northern Ireland, the report says political divisions in the Executive Committee lead to ‘chaotic decision making’. A four week ‘circuit breaker’ was introduced on the 16th of October 2020 despite advice saying a 6-week period of restrictions was needed.
Scotland’s handling of the second wave was praised in the report, saying the quick introduction of locally targeted measures in the autumn of 2020 slowed the growth of covid cases, and allowed for a second nationwide lockdown to be avoided.
As the covid Alpha variant began to spread in late 2020, the report found all four governments failed to recognise the threat the new variant posed, despite the report concluding the threat was ‘entirely foreseeable’.
The inquiry says no proper action was taken until infection levels grew to a critical state, making a return to lockdown conditions ‘unavoidable’.
Vaccination rollout and variants
The Covid Inquiry highlights that the UK was the first country in the world to approve a covid vaccine and begin a vaccination program.
It also says that by the time the Delta variant came about in March 2021, the four UK governments had learnt from their previous experiences in the pandemic, delaying the lifting of restrictions until the vaccine rollout had progressed to a suitable level and balanced the level of infection with the protection from the vaccine.
Despite this praise, the report says all four governments acted riskily around the time of the Omicron variant. Whilst the Omicron variant was less severe, it was far more transmissible, meaning a large increase in the number of cases and 30,000 deaths between November 2021 and June 2022.
The inquiry says if it wasn’t for the effectiveness of the vaccine and the reduction in severity of the Omicron variant, the potential consequences would have been ‘disastrous’.
'Toxic culture' within UK government
The Inquiry made several comments about problems within the culture of UK Government. The report says there was a ‘toxic and chaotic culture’ at the centre of the UK government during the pandemic. The report highlights several individuals such as then Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his advisor Dominic Cummings.
One scandal that ultimately played a role in Johnson’s resignation as Prime Minister was party-gate and allegations of multiple social gatherings between government staff whilst strong restrictions prohibited social gatherings for the public.
Dominic Cummings came under scrutiny when, in late March 2020, he drove 260 miles to a farm owned by his parents in the Northeast. This directly contradicted government messaging at the time to stay home.
The inquiry report says by failing to tackle ‘chaotic’ culture and, at points encouraging it, Prime Minister Boris Johnson reinforced a culture of ‘the loudest voices prevailed’ and that the views of others, particularly women ‘often went ignored’.
Key themes from the Covid Inquiry Report
The second report from the Covid Inquiry highlighted a number of key issues that emerged during the giving of evidence for this section of the inquiry.
These include:
• The need for proper planning - The report says this issue is a constant throughout the inquiry and had the UK been better prepared, lives would have been saved and the economic cost of the pandemic would have been greatly reduced.
• The need for effective action - The four UK Governments need to act more quickly and decisively to prevent the spread of any future viruses.
• Scientific and technical advice - The report found that high-quality advice provided by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies was restricted due to a lack of clear objectives by the UK Government.
• Vulnerabilities and inequalities - The impact of the pandemic was not equal across the country. Groups who were at a higher risk of dying from Covid-19 included the elderly, disabled and some ethnic groups. The report says class played a role in the risks posed by the pandemic. It also highlights how some groups were more negatively impacted by lockdowns, and that the potential harm was not considered.
• Government decision making - The inquiry found discrepancies over who played a role in decision making throughout the pandemic across the 4 nations. Whilst in England and Scotland, a small select group of ministers were responsible for pandemic decision making, in Wales the whole Welsh Cabinet engaged in the process. Finally, the report strongly criticised the decision-making in the Northern Ireland Executive, saying political disputes weakened the independence of government departments.
• Public Health Communications - The report says the public understanding of the risks of covid were not always clear. Whilst the ‘Stay At Home’ campaign was effective in the first lockdown, the inquiry says it at times was too simple, preventing those needing medical help from doing so. It also says the complexity of regulations across the four nations as the pandemic continued became difficult for the public to understand.
• Legislation and Enforcement - The inquiry says the issue of confusion continued into how restrictions were enforced by the police, and said in some places the enforcement of rules by police was ‘practically impossible’.
• Intergovernmental working - The effectiveness of the working relationship between the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the leaders of the devolved nations was impacted by a ‘lack of trust’.
Recommendations from the Covid Inquiry report
In total, the Chair of the UK Covid Inquiry Baroness Hallett outlined 19 improvements that, if implemented, she says could prevent the need for national lockdowns during future pandemics.
The improvements included:
• Improving consideration of the impact decisions my have on the most vulnerable
• Reforming and clarifying decision-making structures within each nation for emergencies.
• Ensuring proper communication of decisions and their impacts to the public
• Allowing greater parliamentary scrutiny of the use of emergency powers
• Improve communication between the four nations during states of national emergencies
• Allowing representatives of the devolved nations to attend COBR and SAGE meetings