amilies who misplaced family members in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic have been denied entry to “essential materials” given to the general public inquiry into the disaster, legal professionals have claimed.
Legislation agency Broudie Jackson Canter, which is representing the Covid-19 Bereaved Households for Justice UK group, stated it has not been given entry to former prime minister Boris Johnson’s telephone messages.
The machine he used throughout key intervals of the coronavirus pandemic is predicted to comprise messages referring to the ordering of three lockdowns in 2020.
The agency stated it needed to make submissions to the inquiry forward of its second module with out having this info.
Now we have been compelled to make submissions to the inquiry with out having the advantage of essential materials, together with a key witness assertion from Dominic Cummings and entry to Boris Johnson’s telephone messages throughout essential levels of the pandemic
Legal professionals representing the group have additionally not been given entry to a witness assertion from former No 10 adviser Dominic Cummings.
It comes because the second stage of the inquiry is about to start on Tuesday.
The Authorities’s work in the course of the disaster shall be scrutinised over the approaching weeks because the inquiry examines key decision-making in Westminster between January 2020 and February 2022, when the ultimate Covid restrictions in England have been lifted.
Nicola Brook, solicitor at Broudie Jackson Canter, stated: “It’s been a irritating lead as much as module two.
“Now we have been compelled to make submissions to the inquiry with out having the advantage of essential materials, together with a key witness assertion from Dominic Cummings and entry to Boris Johnson’s telephone messages throughout essential levels of the pandemic. We nonetheless await these.
“Understandably, the bereaved households are feeling prefer it’s one rule for the political resolution makers and one rule for them.
“Sadly, the bereaved shall be left watching on the sidelines in any case however one in all our requests for 23 bereaved witnesses to provide proof in module two have been refused.
“They’re those with direct, first-hand expertise of what the Authorities may and will have achieved higher, and needs to be on the centre of the inquiry, which shall be a lot poorer with out their enter.”
Ministers and different authorities officers are anticipated to provide proof in the course of the second module of the inquiry, titled Core UK decision-making and political governance.
Different witnesses will embody knowledgeable advisers, together with members of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), civil servants and well being officers from the NHS, the Division of Well being and Social Care and the now defunct Public Well being England.
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry has been approached for remark.
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