Found: Baroness Hallett went around the country seeking people’s views on the terms of reference, and they

Found: established 17/12/14, chaired by Lady Smith; Coronavirus (UK), established 12/05/21, chaired by Baroness Hallett

Found: Correspondence from Baroness Hallett, Chair, UK COVID-19 Public Inquiry, re UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry

Found: Correspondence from Ben Connah, Inquiry Secretary, UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry, re letter to Baroness Hallett

Found: covid inquiries in addition to this one, including the independent UK covid-19 inquiry led by Baroness Hallett

Found: inquiries are currently taking place, including the independent UK Covid-19 Inquiry4 led by Baroness Hallett

Found: LIST OF MEMBERS AND DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST Lord Blunkett Baroness Chakrabarti Lord Dholakia Baroness Hallett

Found: Commons London SW1A 0AA 24 March 2022 Dear Mr Halfon, Thank you for your letter dated 15 March to Baroness Hallett

Found: Correspondence from the Chair to Baroness Hallett regarding the Government's Draft Terms of Reference

Found: Robert Buckland MP: Yes indeed, Baroness Hallett.

Found: the HIGHGATE CEMETERY BILL Thursday 4 March 2021 (Afternoon) In Committee Room 4a PRESENT: Baroness Hallett

Found: the HIGHGATE CEMETERY BILL Thursday 4 March 2021 (Morning) In Committee Room 4a PRESENT: Baroness Hallett

Found: the HIGHGATE CEMETERY BILL Wednesday 3 March 2021 (Morning) In Committee Room 4a PRESENT: Baroness Hallett

Found: the HIGHGATE CEMETERY BILL Tuesday 2 March 2021 (Afternoon) In Committee Room 4a PRESENT: Baroness Hallett

Found: the HIGHGATE CEMETERY BILL Tuesday 2 March 2021 (Morning) In Committee Room 4a PRESENT: Baroness Hallett

Found: You will have seen last week that an IFI report by Baroness Hallett looking at the Iraq fatality investigations

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how the needs of the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable, as distinct from the disabled, will be addressed in the UK COVID-19 Inquiry.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)

The UK COVID-19 Inquiry is independent of the Government. The process, procedure and timing of the Inquiry are matters for the Chair, Baroness Hallett.

On 16th January 2023 the Chair designated the group Clinically Vulnerable Families as a Core Participant for Module 3 of the Inquiry which covers healthcare systems in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is for the Inquiry itself to provide any further detail on the important issue of how the needs of the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable will be addressed.

The Government is committed to learning from the Covid-19 Inquiry’s findings which will play a key role in informing planning and preparations for the future; it continues to work closely with the Inquiry.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government when the UK COVID-19 inquiry will complete; and whether they will put a cap on the (1) time frame, and (2) cost, permitted.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)

Under the Inquiries Act 2005, the process, timing and procedure of the Inquiry are decisions for the Inquiry’s independent Chair, Baroness Hallett. The Chair is under a statutory obligation to avoid unnecessary costs in the Inquiry’s work and she has been clear that she intends to complete her work as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Found: As Baroness Hallett rightly stated, risks and emergencies do not recognise borders.

Found: Yesterday, Baroness Hallett published her report from the first module of the UK covid-19 inquiry, which

Found: On 21 July 2022, Baroness Hallett, the Inquiry Chair, made an opening statement and launched the Inquiry

Found: On 21 July 2022, Baroness Hallett, the Inquiry Chair, made an opening statement and launched the Inquiry

Found: The opening statement was made by Baroness Hallett on 21 July 2022, which saw the launch of Module 1

Found: UK COVID Public Inquiry The UK COVID Public Inquiry was launched on 21 July 2022 by Baroness Hallett

Found: The UK Covid -19 Inquiry has been set up, chaired by Baroness Hallett, to examine the UK’s response to

Found: Baroness Hallett was app ointed Chair in December 2021 a nd in Sp ring 2022 consulted the pu blic on

Found: At the conclusion of the Module 4 evidence session in June 2024, Inquiry Chair Baroness Hallett shared

Found: and Accounts 2023-24 16 Case Study: UK Covid-19 Inquiry The UK Covid-19 Inquiry chaired by Baroness Hallett

Found: Following a letter from the ICO to her consultation on the Covid Inquiry’s terms of reference, Baroness Hallett

Found: Following a letter from the ICO to her consultation on the Covid Inquiry’s terms of reference, Baroness Hallett

Found: As Baroness Hallett rightly stated, risks and emergencies do not recognise borders.

Found: Also, regarding the public Inquiry into Covid -19 led by the Noble Baroness Hallett, we have always

Found: • The UK Covid-19 Inquiry, chaired by Baroness Hallett, has published details of the first 7 modules

Found: Director of Inquiry Set-up has now written to me to ask that I reiterate that message following Baroness Hallett

Found: The Inquiry Chair, Baroness Hallett, will consider all evidence submitted in respect of the United Kingdom

Found: The Inquiry Chair, Baroness Hallett, will consider all evidence submitted in respect of the United Kingdom

Found: The UK Government has also set up an inquiry, chaired by Chair, Baroness Hallett, under the Inquiries

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with people living with vaccine injury, and whether it will consider meeting with representatives of such people in the coming months.

Answered by Minto, Jenni - Minister for Public Health and Women's Health

It is important to acknowledge that vaccines are medicines and like all medicines they can have side effects and, on rare occasions, cause injury. Thankfully, most side effects are mild and short lived, but the Scottish Government recognises that some are not.

The Scottish Government has corresponded with the Scottish Vaccine Injury Group on several occasions, and has routinely signposted members of the public to the vaccine damage payment scheme when they have raised issues of vaccine–related injury. The safety of medicines, including vaccines, and the subject matter of the Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme are matters which are reserved to the UK Government, therefore we are unable to comment on individual cases.

The Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry is currently underway and the forthcoming Module 4 of the UK COVID-19 Public Inquiry on Vaccines and Therapeutics will consider vaccine safety and other aspects, such as potential reforms to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme.

The Scottish Vaccine Injury Group is a core participant of both the UK and Scottish Inquiries and as such has a central role. Due to the group’s involvement with the Inquiries, it would not be appropriate for Ministers to meet with them at this stage.

I advised through recent correspondence with the Scottish Vaccine Injury Group that I would be open to meeting with representatives of the group once Module 4 of the UK Inquiry has concluded, and after Baroness Hallett has issued my recommendations. This would facilitate a full and open discussion to take place between both parties, where recommendations could be discussed, especially if there were any the group felt weren’t full addressed as part of the inquiry.

Found: 01 April 2022 Dear Baroness Hallett UK COVID-19 Inquiry draft terms of reference The Welsh

Found: independent UK Covid-19 Inquiry draft terms of reference, and for sight of your response to its chair Baroness Hallett

Found: 10 August 2022 Dear Baroness Hallett UK COVID-19 Inquiry launch statement and initial modules

Found: I do not believe that the announcements made by Baroness Hallett have materially changed the position

Found: The inquiry chair, the Rt Hon Baroness Hallett DBE, has made 10 key recommendations, aimed at the UK

Found: preparedness of the United Kingdom Welsh Government response Ministerial Foreword The Rt Hon Baroness Hallett

Found: We thank Baroness Hallett and her team for their work and for today’s report.

Found: “I am pleased that Baroness Hallett has been appointed to lead the UK-wide Covid-19 public inquiry.

<p>We were constantly told that the Welsh Government was led by the science. As opposition Members, we are being led by the evidence when it comes to trying to understand how Welsh Government, how special advisers, how the civil servants and other decision makers arrived at the decisions that impacted everyone's lives in this country, and key decisions that either led to life-and-death situations for many people—that was the severity and the magnitude of the decisions that were being taken. And I know, First Minister, that you felt that burden, just like every other decision maker felt it as well. So, I'm not trying to diminish the level of expectation that was on your shoulders, and indeed other decision makers across the United Kingdom. But it is incumbent on us to try and understand how those decisions were arrived at and how they were enacted.</p>
<p>Last week, your senior special adviser, in cross-examination by the chair of the inquiry herself, Baroness Hallett, said that she misused her personal phone for communications within Government. Those were her words; she admitted that. So, under the civil service code that governs the relationship between senior civil servants and also special advisers, given that admission, what action are you taking as First Minister to bring the disciplinary process to bear as it would be used on any minor or junior official if such a disclosure had come about? Or are you prepared not to act and allow such a transgression to get away with it?</p>

<p>At the end of this month, the UK COVID inquiry hearings for module 2B will be heard here in Cardiff. The Welsh Government has, of course, so far resisted establishing a full inquiry into its own handling of the pandemic, in stark contrast with the Scottish Government. According to the First Minister, this is because the UK inquiry represents the best option for scrutinising the decisions that were made here in Wales. Almost eight months since the UK inquiry formally commenced its proceedings therefore, it's worth reflecting on the credibility of this assessment.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Firstly, we heard Baroness Hallett herself acknowledge that the scope of the UK inquiry would not be able to cover every issue relating to Wales. Then, we had both the First Minister and the former health Minister provide their testimonies for module 1 over a single day in July last year, at which the former admitted that Wales was not as prepared as it could have been for the pandemic. We've also discovered that organisations such as the Children's Commissioner for Wales, the Older People's Commissioner for Wales and Cardiff and Vale University Health Board have been denied core participant status, with the latter being told they would not receive the degree of focus that they initially believed. And though this Government has belatedly set up a special purpose committee to cover gaps in the UK inquiry, to date, it's only met four times, always behind closed doors, with the COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru group justifiably concerned about the ability of the committee to go beyond merely duplicating existing work.&nbsp;</p>
<p>So, Minister, do you still believe that a full Wales inquiry into the pandemic is unnecessary, and, if so, why?</p>

<p>Just picking up on that last point, First Minister, if I may—. I accept that this is an evolving picture; it's a live inquiry. But, when I asked Baroness Hallett specifically about expert witnesses just over a month ago, I got a list of the expert witnesses that were appointed by that date. And there were—. Based on the area of instruction that I was given, none of them had any particular specific expertise in relation to Wales. Doesn't, at least, the First Minister—? I understand the point that you've just made that it's not your role as a witness to the inquiry to then tell the inquiry what expertise they need to avail themselves of. But isn't it a legitimate area of concern that, certainly as of 23 March, there were no expert witnesses appointed at that point, with only a few months to go to the beginning of module 1, with expertise in relation to Wales?</p>