The Inquiry’s website was updated late last week with several new documents. Among these were the Chair’s opening statement, the scope for the first element of the Inquiry’s investigations, and the core participant protocol.

The opening statement sets out the Chair’s intention to address the breadth of the Terms of Reference by grouping different aspects of the pandemic into “modules”. The hearings for each module will be conducted sequentially.

Module 1 opened last Thursday, 21 July. While the scope is still subject to comments from core participants and counsel to the Inquiry, this module will consider, broadly, the extent to which the risk of a Coronavirus pandemic was properly identified and planned for and whether the UK was ready for that eventuality. The Chair is planning to hold the first preliminary hearing for this module in September, with full public hearings starting in Spring next year.

Crucially, those wishing to take a formal role in the Inquiry as core participants will be invited to make their applications for each module, rather than throughout the Inquiry as a whole. The core participant protocol is clear that there will be very few, if any, people or organisations that will be core participants throughout the Inquiry. The protocol also makes clear that the Chair may decide to invite individuals or institutions to become core participants. The deadline for core participant applications for module 1 has been set as 16 August.

Module 2 will look at core political and administrative governance and decision-making for the UK, before going on to consider these at the level of the devolved administrations, while module 3 will examine the impact of Covid, and of the governmental and societal responses to it, on healthcare systems generally and on patients, hospital and other healthcare workers and staff. According to the Chair’s opening statement, the Inquiry will open module 2 in late August this year.

While the opening statement set out many practical issues that will be of concern to those seeking to be involved in the Inquiry, the Chair also used it as an opportunity to issue a warning that she will “not hesitate to make [her] views clear about any person or organisation who stands in the way of the Inquiry performing its task”. Importantly, she also made a commitment to finding a way to commemorate those whom we have lost in the most respectful and appropriate way possible.

The window for applying to become a core participant for module 1 is short and, as such, we expect organisations to use the next fortnight to gather the relevant evidence and make their submissions. At Bates Wells, we are well placed to assist in these tasks, so please do contact us if you would like to discuss your organisation’s specific situation.