Covid inquiry – live: George Osborne claims austerity had ‘positive’ effect on UK’s ability to withstand Covid
George Osborne is giving evidence to the Covid inquiry today
Austerity had a “positive” effect on the UK’s ability to withstand the Covid-19 pandemic, former chancellor George Osborne has claimed.
In his witness statement submitted to the Covid inquiry, Mr Osborne said austerity had a positive effect because it meant public finances recovered.
“Reducing the deficit and placing debt as a percentage of GDP on a downward path was also essential to rebuild fiscal space to provide scope to respond to future economic shocks,” Mr Osborne said.
“I have no doubt that taking those steps to repair the UK’s public finances in the years following the financial crisis of 2008/09 had a material and positive effect on the UK’s ability to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic,” he continued.
George Osborne is giving evidence to the Covid inquiry today after a doctor’s union said the former chancellor must be “taken to task” over austerity-era decisions that “left us so unprepared” for the pandemic.
It comes after David Cameron said he is “desperately sorry” for the loss of life during the pandemic on Monday.
Osborne offers 'heartfelt sympathy' to COVID-bereaved
George Osborne began his session by saying: “I just wanted to express my heartfelt sympathy for those who lost loved ones during the pandemic – and for those who feel things could have been done differently.
“I hope the inquiry gets to the bottom of what those things might have been.”
Watch live: George Osborne gives evidence to Covid-19 inquiry
Watch live as George Osborne gives evidence to the Covid inquiry on Tuesday, 20 June.
The former chancellor must be “taken to task” over austerity-era cuts that left the country “so unprepared” for the pandemic, according to a doctor’s union.
Watch live: George Osborne gives evidence to Covid-19 inquiry
Sir Oliver Letwin’s evidence concludes
Sir Oliver Letwin has now finished giving evidence to the Covid inquiry.
Former chancellor George Osborne is up next.
Pandemic exercises every five years would be ‘pretty good’ - Letwin
Asked if the UK and government should regularly practise responding to whole-scale emergencies, Letwin agreed that if every five years we exercised for the impact of “an unknown but ghastly virus or agent... that would be pretty good”.
“But if you had for each domain one exercise every five years, you’d be having an exercise at least every year,” he said.
‘No friction’ with devolved nations on emergency planning, says Letwin
Sir Oliver Letwin has said there was “no friction” with the devolved nations over emergency planning.
He said there was “repeated involvement of the devolved administrations” when it came to specific crises like Ebola and fuel delivery during his time in government.
However, Letwin said he was not actively involved in planning in Wales.
“As it happens, in the other cases I was dealing with, Wales was not a particularly material issue,” he said.
Officials thought PPE for flu would work for coronaviruses, inquiry hears
The inquiry was shown a memo from January 2013 to the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, which says “stockpiles of countermeasures for influenza pandemic disease provided protection from other non-influenza pandemic disease”.
Letwin agreed with Hugo Keith KC that it was “plainly an issue” that the government believed PPE for flu would also work for coronaviruses such as Covid-19.
He adds: “It looked as though… and it seems so ludicrous in retrospect… that there was a consensus that this was under control.”
Need to focus on impact on vulnerable people - Letwin
When emergencies happen, Letwin says it is the impact government needs to deal with.
He said: “In particular the most vulnerable people, the people who are vulnerable to that impact. Unless you focus on impacts, you can’t focus on the right vulnerabilities.
“Old people may be more vulnerable to some impacts, young people to others and so on.
“Although I do think it’s important to separate between threats and hazards... I think the most important shift to achieve is the shift from focusing on causes to focusing on impacts.”
Letwin expresses regret at not focusing more on pandemic flu
Sir Oliver Letwin, who was the Cabinet Office minister in charge of resilience between 2011 and 2016, expressed regret at not focusing more on pandemic flu.
He told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry: “My great regret about not having focused on pandemic flu, because I was told it was being well looked after, is not actually about pandemic flu.
“But that it might have occurred to me if I had focused on that, that despite all the scientists had concluded, and no doubt they were right, that there was a very tiny probability by comparison with the probability of pandemic flu, of some other catastrophic pathogen...
“It might have occurred to me to say ‘well, OK there’s a tiny probability but can we for a tiny amount of money prepare properly to deal with it in advance?”
He said he followed advice to investigate critical national infrastructure instead, adding: “Actually it is absolutely not an excuse for a minister, alas, because you can always ask the following question, you don’t have to accept the advice.
“That is actually what I should’ve done and it’s a matter of lasting regret that I didn’t.”
Churn of ministers and officials tasked with preparing for emergencies ‘disaster for country’ - Letwin
The churn of ministers and officials tasked with preparing for emergencies is a “disaster for the country”, Oliver Letwin has said.
Sir Oliver Letwin, who was the Cabinet Office minister in charge of resilience between 2011 and 2016, told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry there is an “overwhelming case” for training for ministers dealing with civil contingencies.
But, he said, many stay in their post for such a short time that they might leave soon after completing their training.
“So it isn’t just a question of training. It’s a question of training and having a system that keeps both ministers and officials in post long enough so they can use the training.”
Asked whether the so-called “revolving door” tends to undermine experience, efficacy and the ability of ministers and officials to be able to do the job with which they are tasked, Sir Oliver said: “I strongly believe that it does...
“I’m pretty certain that the entire structure of the civil service means that you can’t really make progress in a career without going through endless different jobs one after another, which I regard as a disaster for the country, particularly disastrous in the case of things that have very long lead times and where learning from experience is critical.”
Sir Oliver also said the UK’s critical national infrastructure is “wildly under-resilient”.
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