Covid inquiry live: Pandemic taskforce ‘blindsided’ by Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme

The scenario pictured below was shown to Boris Johnson in September 2020 by the Covid-19 taskforce, outlining a hypothetical scenario for the middle of October ahead of a decision on a so-called “circuit breaker” lockdown.

The Covid inquiry has heard that Mr Johnson then did not take that option.

Simon Ridley has told the Covid inquiry he was not consulted about the Eat Out to Help Out scheme during the pandemic.

That “was decided by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor”, the former head of the Covid-19 taskforce said.

A surprised lead counsel Hugo Keith KC said: “You were the single body tasked with sensitising the policy and strategy for responding to the virus and giving advice to the government telling them how it should be responded to.”

“You must have been extraordinarily concerned,” he added.

Mr Ridley squirmed over his answer, before saying: “Things happen that surprise… we were focused on the advice we could give.”

Mr Keith said: “Because you were effectively blindsided by the Treasury and there was nothing you could do?”
“Correct,” Mr Ridley said.

Simon Ridley has been asked by the Covid inquiry’s lead counsel Hugo Keith KC whether the Cabinet Office and No10 had to “push” the Department of Health to address the issue of testing NHS patients before discharging them into care homes and the testing of social care staff.

He was asked if they had to say “what is going on? What is being done about this? What can be done to solve these grave problems?”

Mr Ridley, the former head of the Cabinet Office’s Covid-19 taskforce, said: “Yes, that is broadly correct.”

Simon Ridley, the former head of the Cabinet Office’s Covid-19 taskforce, has said there were “too many meetings” during the pandemic and a “profusion of officialdom”.

Mr Ridley told the Covid inquiry it was “confusing” for staff inside the Cabinet Office and other departments, with those in the Department of Health “incredibly busy”.

“There was too much activity,” he said.

A series of emails shown to the Covid inquiry laid bare the chaos around the government’s drive to discharge NHS patients into care homes, many of whom had asymptomatic cases of Covid.

Dr Ben Warner, who appeared before the inquiry on Monday, sent an email on April 13 to top officials in No10 saying he was “increasingly concerned” about cases picked up in hospital being spread into care homes.

A Cabinet Office official then said he had spoken with the Department of Health’s lead on the issue, who said it was “not an issue of concern”.

Dr Warner urged the official to “push quite hard” on why it was not of concern.

The inquiry’s lead counsel Hugo Keith KC asked if the issue “rumbled on” as to how concerning an issue it was and what was the extent of it. Giving evidence, Simon Ridley, the former head of the Cabinet Office’s Covid-19 taskforce, said “yes”.

The Covid inquiry has heard that multiple officials raised “quite serious concerns” about NHS patients being discharged into care homes.

At the end of March and beginning of April 2020, Simon Ridley told the inquiry there was an aim to get 15,000 people discharged from hospitals into social care settings to free up capacity in the health service.

But the inquiry’s lead counsel Hugo Keith KC has shown evidence that a number of officials raised concerns about asymptomatic patients spreading the disease into care homes.

The inquiry was then shown an email from a No10 official on April 3, who said the government should consider “more extreme measures or guidance”.

“Given that once someone gets it in one of these places, many die,” the email said.

“We were concerned that there were problems in the care sector that needed to be addressed extremely quickly,” said Mr Ridley, who was head of the Cabinet Office’s Covid-19 taskforce.

The former head of the Cabinet Office Covid-19 taskforce has said the government “did not know with any great certainty” how many people would need to “shield” during the pandemic.

Simon Ridley told the Covid inquiry it would be in the “low millions”, but there was a “constant debate” about whether shielding support should have been offered solely to those who were clinically extremely vulnerable, or those who were also socially vulnerable or generally needed support.

Mr Ridley ran the Cabinet Office’s Covid-19 taskforce during the pandemic.

Archie Mitchell and Adam Forrest reported on Monday’s revelations from the inquiry

Boris Johnson joked about the Treasury being “the pro-death squad” during the pandemic because it wanted to ease lockdown restrictions quickly, Sir Patrick Vallance’s diaries have revealed.

The former chief scientific adviser recorded a meeting in which the former PM said he wanted to lift all Covid restrictions by September 2020.

In an extracts from his diary, shown to the Covid inquiry, Sir Patrick said Mr Johnson “ended up by saying the team must bring in the pro-death squad from HMT [Her Majesty’s Treasury]”.

Good morning and welcome to the Covid-19 live blog covering the inquiry. Boris Johnson’s former top aide Lord Edward Udny-Lister and Simon Ridley, the former head of Cabinet Office for the Covid-19 taskforce, will appear to give evidence.