Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has instructed No. 10 staff to preserve evidence for the inquiry into the Government's handling of the covid-19 outbreak.

All departments are aware that the Covid inquiry will bring with it substantial obligations to provide relevant records, information and data, and that preparation for the inquiry includes the need to ensure that no material of potential relevance to the inquiry is destroyed. The Cabinet Office raised this to the attention of all departments across Whitehall in June 2021 and again in February 2022.