Opening the second stage of the legislative inquiry, looking at “how central government responded to the pandemic and made the key decisions it did”, Hugo Keith KC said he would ask whether the delayed lockdowns cost lives and whether the breach of the rules undermined his confidence audience. Speaking at a preliminary hearing before witnesses are examined next summer, with the UK death toll from confirmed Covid surpassing 180,000, Keith said there would be “special scrutiny” of decisions made by the prime minister, the cabinet , senior political advisers and scientific and medical advisers from early January 2020 until the first national lockdown in late March 2020. WhatsApp messages between Johnson and Downing Street and other senior officials were requested along with cabinet minutes and notes of written and verbal advice to ministers. Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s former chief adviser, has already released some messages from a Downing Street WhatsApp group that he and Johnson use. Ministers will be asked to give evidence over eight weeks next summer. Keith said the inquiry would also ask: “Was the stated policy of monitoring the science a fair reflection of actual decision-making?” More than 200 scientists, including all those involved in the Sage group and others in the Independent Sage group, the latter of which has been highly critical of the government’s handling of the pandemic, were asked to provide evidence on the effectiveness of the response. The inquiry will ask: “How effectively has Sage been used by central government?” Keith also said he would question whether there was “an over-reliance on epidemiological modeling or mathematical modelling”. Imperial College London, which employs Professor Neil Ferguson, the epidemiologist whose predictions were evident at the start of the pandemic, is among the key participants in this phase of the research. Keith said the inquiry’s job would be to ask whether anything could have been done to reduce the loss and suffering caused by “death and disease on an unprecedented scale”. He described widespread “social damage … with unmet health needs, damaged educational prospects [and] economic insecurity’ and ‘enormous’ human and financial costs. The inquiry also announced it was proceeding with a “listening exercise” to collect and summarize testimonies from people affected by the pandemic, despite opposition from bereavement groups who want their testimonies to be taken into evidence. The survey has contracted polling firm Ipsos to run the exercise and communications firm M&C Saatchi to tell the public how to take part. The investigation is struggling to prevent an already massive exercise that will take several years to spread out of control. For example, the Cabinet Office said it has so many potentially relevant documents that its material alone would take three years to review. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Highlighting the complexity of the exercise, 39 key stakeholder groups were represented at the Section 2 preliminary hearing, including three long-standing Covid support groups, disability rights groups, children’s rights groups and bereaved families groups representing the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as minority ethnic communities, including the Federation of Minority Ethnic Health Organisations. Seventy-nine teams had applied. The health system was represented by NHS England, the British Medical Association and umbrella groups of social care agencies. There were council, police and union lawyers. Government bodies ranged from the Department of Health and Social Care and the Foreign Office to the office of England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, and the governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.