There was a “profusion of officialdom” during the early period of the Government’s pandemic response, the Covid-19 inquiry has heard.
Simon Ridley, who became the latest senior official to appear before Lady Hallett’s probe this week, conceded that there were “too many meetings” inside the Cabinet Office during March and April 2020.
The former head of Cabinet Office Covid-19 Taskforce faced questions about preparations and plans to stop the spread of the virus in care homes and social care settings, as he acknowledged Downing Street and the Cabinet Office pushed the Department of Health to work on the issue.
Put to him by lead counsel for the inquiry Hugo Keith KC that there was a “profusion of officialdom” at the centre of Government, Mr Ridley agreed.
He told the hearing there were “too many meetings”.
“I think that is true inside the Cabinet Office. I think it was also confusing for colleagues in other departments.”
The official also said that by April “concerns were growing” about the situation inside care homes, but Mr Keith questioned him on whether protecting the NHS and freeing up beds in hospitals ultimately took precedence over where patients were sent.
He said: “That is precisely what the Government was balancing.
“It was the case that it was a priority for discharge to happen, and the MIG (ministerial implementation groups) discussions were about what the support and mitigations for care homes and the care sector were.
“There were some limitations to that in terms of testing capacity.”
He was also pressed on what Mr Keith called a “dawning realisation” that the testing system in practice could not keep up with the policy decision-making on who was going to be tested.
“In Cabinet Office and Number 10, we were not assured of the position in care homes and the extent to which there were plans in place to minimise the risks of infection.
“Testing was part of that, we were aware of constraints in testing, but there were other mitigations we were seeking to assure ourselves of,” Mr Ridley said.
Lord Edward Udny-Lister, a former Chief of Staff to Boris Johnson, appears on Tuesday afternoon.
