Covid inquiry: Bereaved families relief as High Court dismisses Cabinet Office JR – openDemocracy

Bereaved families have praised the High Courts decision to force the government to hand over unredacted evidence to the Covid inquiry.

The Cabinet Office had launched a judicial review of the inquirys demand for disclosure of official communications that included diaries and WhatsApps between ministers and senior officials among them potential evidence that Boris Johnson had breached his own lockdown rules.

A spokesperson for Covid Bereaved Families for Justice, the group that pushed for the inquiry in the first place, said today: This judicial review was a desperate waste of time and money.

The inquiry needs to get to the facts if the country is to learn lessons that will save lives in the future. That means it needs to be able to access all of the evidence, not just what the Cabinet Office wants it to see.

The Covid-19 public inquiry is a historic chance to find out what really happened.

A successful inquiry could save thousands of lives in the event of another pandemic, and its a disgrace that the Cabinet Office is trying to obstruct it. Any attempt to appeal this decision or hinder its work further would be utterly shameful.

The government now has until Monday to hand over the evidence.

A spokesperson for the inquiry said: "Baroness Hallett is pleased the court has upheld her Section 21 notice.

"Following the courts judgement, the inquiry has varied its order to require the disclosure of materials by 4pm on Monday 10 July.

openDemocracy first revealed in May that the Cabinet Office had refused to give up Boris Johnsons messages and diaries, having unilaterally determined some content to be unambiguously irrelevant.

Inquiry chair Heather Hallett, a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, said it wasnt the governments place to decide what was and was not relevant.

The Cabinet Office has tweeted a response to todays High Court decision, calling it "sensible".

The inquiry is an important step to learn lessons from the pandemic and the government is cooperating in the spirit of candour and transparency," it claimed.

As this judgment acknowledges, our judicial review application was valid as it raised issues over the application of the Inquiries Act 2005 that have now been clarified. The court's judgment is a sensible resolution and will mean that the inquiry chair is able to see the information she may deem relevant, but we can work together to have an arrangement that respects the privacy of individuals and ensures completely irrelevant information is returned and not retained.

We will comply fully with this judgment and will now work with the inquiry team on the practical arrangements."

The inquiry is currently ongoing, focusing on how prepared the UK was for a pandemic. So far it has heard how care homes were not a priority in emergency planning documents from 2019, how health inequalities were not considered in pandemic planning, and how Wales had inadequately prepared for the pandemic.

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Covid inquiry: Bereaved families relief as High Court dismisses Cabinet Office JR - openDemocracy