If you’re just joining us, we’ve been hearing from former Education Secretary Gavin Williamson at the Covid inquiry, where he’s been talking about how school closures were handled during the pandemic.

Before the room went for a comfort break, Williamson said:

• The lack of planning from the Department for Education (DfE) was not a “dereliction of duty”, but a lack of understanding about the scale of the pandemic
• The DfE could not exercise autonomy when it came to planning for school closures
• He says he wishes he had handled things differently - and readily accepts mistakes were made, including the delay to school closures

So far, Williamson has made it clear he accepts it was his responsibility and is apologetic.

We’ll bring you further key lines once the inquiry recommences.

Image source, PA Media

Vanessa Clarke
Education reporter, at the inquiry

It’s clear the focus of the government, right up until 16 March, was on keeping schools open.

This morning, Gavin Williamson, who was in charge of the Department for Education (DfE), has spoken consistently about “the error of sticking with the plan”.

Interestingly, he told the inquiry he could not have gone ahead and started to make a plan of how school closures would work without approval from Downing Street.

We heard from the inquiry that an email was then sent on the evening of 17 March talking about a plan to close schools - the first time it is discussed.

Image source, UK Covid-19 inquiry

Next, Williamson is being asked about the adherence to scientific advice during the early days of the pandemic.

In response, he says there was not much weight put on to the emerging scientific evidence - "which did clearly prove to be right".

The focus and emphasis of government was not "sharp enough", he adds.

"That was the case in my department, of which I'm sorry for. I readily accept I'm secretary of state, it was my responsibility," he says.

Counsel to the inquiry Clair Dobbin pulls up a document from February 2020 which details the "plausible worst-case scenarios for the education system" as Covid started to spread.

It shows that school closures were part of advice.

The former education secretary says there was also advice from bodies such as Sage which said "that children should stay in school" and that his team was seeking a "steer" from such bodies and civil servants as the Department for Education "wasn't a department with a knowledge base of dealing with the pandemic".

"It was believed there would be shorter term school closures in differing areas," he says.

While Williamson believes his department was acting "under the best guidance at the time", he admits closures should have been prepared for earlier.

"I regret that and wish we had very much done it differently.

"But we were at the time acting in what we believed was the best interest and under the best guidance."

We have been hearing from Gavin Williamson about school closures - or how there were no plans for school closures - during the pandemic.

Here's a timeline to refresh what happened during 2020-2021.

March 2020: All four nations announce school closures to all but children of essential workers and those deemed most vulnerable.

Summer 2020: A phased reopening of schools in England begins on 1 June. In Wales, schools begin to reopen to all pupils from 29 June. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, schools remain closed to most pupils until August 2020. Exams across the nations are cancelled.

September 2020: Pupils across all four nations return to school, but measures such as bubbles and social distancing are in place.

January 2021: Schools open in England on 4 January, but then Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces a third lockdown in England on the same day. All schools close to most pupils from 5 January, with remote learning until February half term.

February - March 2021: A phased reopening of schools in Scotland and Wales begins on 22 February. In Northern Ireland, a phased return starts on 8 March. In England, all pupils return on 8 March and mass testing begins.

Summer 2021: For the second year running, GCSEs and A-levels (and National 5s and Highers in Scotland) are cancelled. Grades are decided by teachers using a series of evidence including mock exams, coursework and essays.

Image source, Reuters

Nabiha Ahmed
Reporting from the inquiry

The inquiry room mostly consists of participants' legal teams tapping away at their laptops.

Amid the sea of formal attire are about six people dotted around the public gallery.

Some of them are taking handwritten notes as Williamson speaks.

Many are sitting with their arms crossed, expressionless to his words.

One or two smile - not exactly happily - as he speaks.

Vanessa Clarke
Education reporter, at the inquiry

Over the last two weeks, the inquiry has heard from various headteachers who said they started making their own plans in February and March in case schools closed - weeks before any announcement.

One leader talked about driving to a service station on the M4 with two of his staff to meet someone who would show him how to use Google Classroom.

Because there was no plan in place by government, they had to start making plans themselves.

Gavin Williamson says he wished he had done things differently - and readily accepts mistakes were made.

Counsel to the inquiry Clair Dobbin turns to ask Williamson about his adoption of advice coming from Sage, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, during the start of the pandemic.

Dobbin says it is "very clear from Sage" in February 2020 that school closures were one of the options to deal with the pandemic.

In response, Williamson says: "I, and I'm sure the prime minister and everyone else, would have wished at the time that we put a much greater emphasis in terms of putting a plan, a detailed plan, in place".

Williamson says he was "clearly steered towards" efforts to keep schools open.

"Do I wish we had done it differently? Yes, I very much do."

Gavin Williamson is asked why major school trusts knew schools would have to close, but the Department for Education (DfE) did not.

He says this was against the government's direction at the time.

"The key thrust of where the government policy was to maintain the opening of schools," he says. "We were being asked to develop papers and the work that was required in order to be able to keep children within schools."

He also says his department could not exercise autonomy when it came to planning for school closures.

"Something like Covid is being directed from the centre in terms of different departments' responses. You don't have quite the freedom just to go and start going out and consulting with lots of people."

Image source, PA

Former Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is first asked whether he agrees that the education department's lack of planning was "an extraordinary dereliction of duty".

"No," is Williamson's response.

But he says there were failures in understanding the enormity of what a pandemic would mean - and how that would impact every aspect of government.

"I readily accept that there were many mistakes that were made, both pre-start of the pandemic and in those early stages of the pandemic, because I don't think the DfE [Department for Education] was any different from No 10, or the Cabinet Office, or other departments that were leading the way in dealing with that pandemic."

Pressed on whether it was a dereliction of duty from the government, Williamson says there were failures from those who were in office and those who had previously been in office.

He says he doesn't think everyone understood how the Covid-19 pandemic "would change everything".

Image source, PA Media

Gavin Williamson, who is speaking now, served as education secretary for just over two years under Boris Johnson.

He began his parliamentary career in 2010 and became chief whip under Theresa May, who later promoted him to defence secretary in November 2017.

Williamson was sacked two years later after facing accusations of leaking information from a top-level National Security Council meeting.

He was back in the cabinet less than three months later, when Johnson named him education secretary.

When the pandemic broke in 2020, he became responsible for tricky areas including home-learning and the return to the classroom.

He faced fierce criticism for his handling of the 2020 school exam period, which saw multiple U-turns on grading after exams were cancelled.

Williamson was ultimately dismissed in September 2021 and received a knighthood the following year.

The Covid inquiry hearing has begun.

You can watch live at the top of the page, and we'll bring you the key lines as they happen.

Stay with us.

Nabiha Ahmed
Reporting from the inquiry

It was spring 2020 when my school suddenly closed its gates, and my A Level exams were abruptly cancelled in the wake of the pandemic.

More than five years on, I'm at the Covid inquiry to find out how those decisions were made.

The man behind them - former Education Secretary Gavin Williamson - is no longer just on my family TV screen, but two floors below me in the inquiry room.

Arriving here today, I remember my peers expressing what felt like relief, anger and regret all at once during that period.

Smugness at exams being cancelled quickly turned into regret for many.

The Covid inquiry was launched by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in June 2022 - more than a year after he said the government's actions during the pandemic would be put "under the microscope".

Johnson said the inquiry would cover decision-making by the UK government, as well as the administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The first public hearings took place in London in June 2023. Subsequent hearings have been held in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

Public inquiries are established and funded by the government and are led by an independent chair. They can compel witnesses to give evidence. No-one is found guilty or innocent, but the inquiry publishes conclusions and recommendations, which the government is not obliged to accept.

Welcome to our live coverage of the Covid inquiry, which is now assessing the impact of the pandemic on children and young people.

Today we'll hear from former Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.

In written evidence presented last month, Williamson said the government’s focus at the start of the pandemic had been on keeping schools open - conceding that no contingency plan had been drafted until the day before closure was announced.

Schools were closed to all pupils except those of key workers and vulnerable children for two periods during 2020 and 2021.

The inquiry has gathered the stories of 18,000 children and young people to learn more about how disruption to education is still affecting young people and their mental and physical health today.

Our reporters at the inquiry and here in the London newsroom are poised to bring you updates and analysis - and you can also follow along by clicking watch live at the top of the page from 10:00 BST.