Delayed public inquiry into UK’s Covid-19 response opens

Launch comes days after campaigners for bereaved threatened legal action over government delays

The delayed public inquiry into the UK's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has been launched after Boris Johnson accepted calls to widen the terms of reference to consider its unequal impact on minority ethnic people, on children and on mental health.

The inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, and her team of 12 QCs, have begun work under the terms of the Inquiries Act which makes it an offence to destroy or tamper with evidence. She will be joined by two panellists to be appointed by Johnson, although she had argued for presiding alone.