The hon. Gentleman's report was discussed. Although the shadow welcomes much of it, she questions whether a judge-led inquiry is not the best way to achieve transparency and suggests that there should be a broad UK approach in reserved areas.

Does my hon. Friend agree that there should be separate Scottish inquiries into areas of responsibility for the Scottish Government and an inquiry for reserved responsibilities in Scotland?

Given that there is no standing secretariat for public inquiries and it took Sir Robert Francis four months to appoint solicitors, does my hon. Friend agree that starting the inquiry sooner rather than later will allow it to do important preparatory work?

Does my hon. Member agree that devolved Governments should be afforded access to evidence-based decision making by the UK Government, which has had a direct impact on their ability to respond to the pandemic?

How can we ensure that the inquiry avoids using hindsight bias, given that this disease did not exist a year ago?

I thank the hon. Member for his presentation. I wholeheartedly agree with him and others that there should be an inquiry, but does he agree that the inquiry should not be to point fingers, but rather to enable lessons to be learned if, God forbid, we come to circumstances like this again? Furthermore, does he agree that any inquiries and investigations carried out by the devolved Assemblies of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should be sought by this inquiry team and must be incorporated in any report?

I thank my hon. Friend and all those who contributed to the report. Does he agree that it would be appropriate for any inquiry to consider the supply of critical equipment, including personal protective equipment and ventilators, and how the Government can ensure that we have adequate manufacturing capacity in the UK, so that we are not reliant on outside suppliers to have enough vital equipment?

As a member of the Select Committee, I would like to thank all the Committee staff for their ongoing help, support, knowledge and professionalism during these complex times. Does the Chair agree that, if we are to fully understand how we can do things better, the proposed devolved inquiries must have access to the Cabinet members, experts and civil servants who were part of the UK Government’s response to the covid crisis?

I thank the Chair and all the other members of the PACAC for this timely report, its fifth report; they have been very assiduous. Her Majesty’s Opposition have responded to this pandemic in a spirit of co-operation that has always put the national interest first, and we are also willing to work together to ensure the right lessons are learned. A full, independent public inquiry into the Government’s response to the covid-19 pandemic is essential to ensure that we are better equipped to confront future health emergencies. We need to ask questions about why Exercise Cygnus was not followed during the pandemic. An emphasis should be placed on the early response to the pandemic, including the factors that might have contributed to a delay in ordering a full lockdown and whether the initial herd immunity strategy was pursued. Members will have been shocked by the disproportionate number of BAME deaths, which were not just confined to people in poverty but included people of all classes, including consultants. Understanding these disparate outcomes should form a central part of the inquiry. The Prime Minister has said that the inquiry should not take place while the pandemic continues. I suggest there be a two-stage inquiry: an initial review followed by a wide-ranging public inquiry. We know that the Government Legal Service can set up inquiries quite quickly and that there are different inquiries taking place. I support the 16 recommendations in the report. It is extremely important that we hold the Government to account, so I agree with the Committee that the Liaison Committee should consider adding the scrutiny of the Government’s responses to public inquiries to the list of core tasks of the Departmental Select Committees. It would be a welcome development. I also think that the four nations should hold their own lessons-learned inquiries, because they all dealt with the pandemic differently.