As a reminder, you can watch the hearings by pressing Watch live above - or the play button below.

Jim Reed
Reporting from the inquiry

The Covid inquiry started work in 2023 and is due to take evidence and report back its findings in stages – or modules as they are called.

Hearings will be held into ten different topics in total, due to last until Spring 2026.

So far, we’ve already heard evidence on the planning for a pandemic; the major political decisions taken in the first two years of Covid; and the impact on the NHS and other healthcare services. All the witnesses speaking today have given evidence to those parts of the inquiry.

This fourth section though looks just at the subject of vaccines and the drugs used to treat Covid, and will run until the end of January.

Expect questioning today to focus on several areas including:

• The development and manufacture of vaccines and therapeutic drugs
• The speed of the vaccine rollout and how different groups were prioritised for the jabs
• The safety of vaccines, including regulation and systems to report suspected adverse events
• The treatment of people who, in rare cases, were harmed after taking the vaccines
• Misinformation and disinformation (that’s deliberate false information) surrounding vaccines and their rollout
• Government policies including so-called vaccine passports and mandatory vaccination for some healthcare workers

Future modules will cover subjects such as Covid testing, the impact on children, the care sector and the economy in the pandemic.

Jim Reed
Reporting from the inquiry

We’re expecting Prof Sir Chris Whitty to start his testimony around mid-morning. England’s chief medical officer was the most senior health adviser to the UK government and a regular face at those Downing Street news conferences.

Later in the day we’ll also hear from his deputy at the time, Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam. Well-known for his sporting and football metaphors, he was fond of comparing the pandemic to a "play-off final" with the development of vaccines telling us that "the goalkeeper can be beaten".

JVT, as he was called by Boris Johnson at the time, stepped down from his government role in March 2022 and now works in an academic position at the University of Nottingham and as a part-time consultant for the US drugs company Moderna, which produces Covid-19 vaccines.

We’re also due to hear from the chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), Prof Dame Jenny Harries, who served as the second deputy chief medical officer for England at the start of the pandemic.

She took the top job at UKHSA in April 2021, when it replaced Public Health England as the main government agency responsible for preventing and responding to infectious disease outbreaks.

Image source, PA Media

Welcome to our live stream coverage of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, which is examining the UK's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

England's chief medical officer Chris Whitty returns to give evidence again, as the inquiry considers the roll-out of vaccines and anti-viral treatment across the UK.

His former deputy Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam is also due to appear after Whitty.

First up, we're expecting Alexandra Jones, the Director General for Science, Innovation and Growth at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, will end the day.

In July 2024, the inquiry's first report said the UK's flawed pandemic preparations had led to more deaths and greater economic damage than there should have been. By the end of 2023, 235,000 people had died with Covid in the UK.

We won't be bringing you regular text updates in this page, but you can follow the inquiry at the top of this page from 10:30 GMT - just click watch live.

• Dancer, football fan, knights: Read our December 2021 profile of Whitty and Van-Tam here

Image source, PA Media