The former head of Public Health England Prof Duncan Selbie is giving evidence to the Covid Inquiry
Earlier, Matt Hancock told the inquiry that UK pandemic preparations were too focused on "the consequences of a disaster" rather than how to stop it
The former health secretary said central considerations were: "Can we buy enough body bags, where we are going to bury the dead?"
The government also had no idea whether care homes had the right protections in place, Hancock said - describing the situation as "terrible"
During the hearing, Hancock looked directly at bereaved families and said he was "profoundly sorry for each death that occurred"
Hancock was in charge of restrictions during the pandemic - including lockdowns and social distancing - but quit as health secretary in June 2021 after breaking his own rules
You can watch the inquiry live by pressing play at the top of this page
Matt Hancock says his central point is "the system for how we run adult social care is flawed".
He says there was work ongoing to resolve it, including work on pandemic planning.
"It was in nowhere near good-enough shape," he continues, especially as older people were affected more by Covid when it struck.
He says reform of how to manage social care is underway, but still not completed.
Hancock is presed on adult social care and says the health department did not have a plan to identify how many peope were in the care sector.
Counsel for the inquiry Hugo Keith KC asks the ex-health secretary if there were local authority-level plans to deal with the impact of a catastrophic pandemic on the elderly.
Hancock says there were not. They were required to do so, but only two did, he tells the inquiry.
He says there were not the policy levers to verify the extent of pandemic planning despite his department having "social care" in the title.
Counsel for the inquiry Hugo Keith KC diverts his attention to adult social care.
Was the sector well prepared for the pandemic, he asks Hancock - who has previously said it is local councils that have the legal responsibility for care homes.
"The department had no means for finding out whether they had the right pandemic plans, whether local authorities had planned sufficiently, let alone how many numbers were in the care sector," Keith says.
"No, it was terrible," Hancock interjects.
Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News
Matt Hancock just dramatically claimed that we came "extremely close - within hours - of running out of medicines for intensive care during the pandemic".
He said this was not "widely reported" at the time.
It's true that a shortage of those drugs did not get the attention that PPE shortages received in the first wave of Covid.
The BBC did though report that the supply of some anaesthetic medicines was becoming "stretched" in some areas of the country by April 2020.
At the time doctors were being told to "act immediately" and use alternatives to some "first line" medications.
Hancock claimed one consequence of no-deal Brexit planning was that supply chains for those kinds of drugs were more secure and we were better prepared for Covid as a result.
Discussing healthcare during the pandemic, Hancock says they came "within hours" of running out of medicines for intensive care.
He says the only reason medicines did not run out is because of work done in preparation for a no-deal Brexit.
Hancock says these plans, including creating relationships with pharmaceutical suppliers and knowing more about the supply chain, became "extremely useful" in saving lives during the pandemic.
Hancock adds this was not widely reported at the time.
The cross-government Pandemic Flu Readiness Board (PFRB) did not meet for a year between November 2018 and November 2019 to make way for Brexit planning, the inquiry's barrister says.
Hugo Keith KC asks Matt Hancock if he was aware whether this was the case,
"That's what this paper says," the former health secretary replies, adding he did not recall they had not met for a year.
"But I do know work under the board's guidance continued... especially but not only on vaccine manufacturing," Hancock adds.
Image source, PA MediaMatt Hancock is pressed further by the inquiry's barrister about the reallocation of pandemic planning resources towards no-deal Brexit planning.
"I wasn't enthusiastic about it, but I signed it off and the reason I signed off the overall reshaping of the department is because we had a very real and material threat should a disorganised Brexit happen that we needed to be prepared for.
"There are many bad things you have to prepare for when you are in the health department."
Asked about shifting priorities, Hancock says the health department needed to be prepared for Brexit.
There was a moment we needed to move resources to prepare for that in the summer of 2019, he said.
On being shown a document about how resources from his department were shifted away from pandemic planning, Hancock queried whether it had "great significance".
Hugo Keith KC, counsel to the inquiry, said he felt it was "a policy decision of great significance".
Hancock responded that this work had been following the wrong approach and he was not sure whether it would have been any use in the pandemic.
"That's my judgement from having been the person in the hotseat when the pandemic struck."
Straight out of the gate, counsel to the inquiry Hugo Keith KC asks why the former health secretary did not appear to give updates on influenza readiness at several key committee meetings.
The committee meetings in question relate to gatherings of the Threats, Hazards, Resilience and Contingencies committee - a sub committee of the National Security Council (NSC).
Matt Hancock tells the inquiry he wasn't invited and wasn't in charge of the agenda of the committee or the wider NSC.
"The team faced a significant number of different threats and challenges, and chose to focus on other things before the pandemic stuck," he adds.
Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News
From 2018 onwards many government departments, including the Department of Health, were diverting resources to Operation Yellowhammer.
That was the codename used in government for civil contingency planning for the possibility of the UK leaving the European Union without a withdrawal agreement - a so-called no-deal Brexit.
The Covid Inquiry has previously heard evidence that 70 staff in the Department of Health were seconded to Yellowhammer - for example working to make sure supplies of certain drugs would continue.
That affected pandemic planning in a number of ways.
In his evidence last week, Deputy PM Oliver Dowden said those Brexit plans left the UK "match-fit" for Covid by forcing government departments to work more closely together, and by adding another 15,000 staff who could then be redeployed to tackle Covid months later.
Lucy Gilder
BBC News
Earlier Matt Hancock told the inquiry his department was considered to be “one of the best places in terms of preparation” for a pandemic.
This is true, according to the Global Health Security Index, a project from Johns Hopkins University in the US. The index – which offers a worldwide ranking for preparedness for epidemics or pandemics – ranked the UK second overall in 2019, external. The US was first.
But the analysis also said: "no country is fully prepared for epidemics or pandemics. Collectively, international preparedness is weak."
By 2021 – the latest data available - the UK had fallen to seventh place, external in the ranking.
Lack of capacity – such as for contact tracing and laboratory testing – was one reason why the UK received a lower ranking.
Nick Triggle
Health correspondent
This is the most explicit acknowledgement yet of the failure of the UK’s approach – and that of the wider Western world for that matter.
While there has been lots of testimony about the fact the UK planned for the wrong virus – flu instead of coronavirus - former Health Secretary Matt Hancock goes further and says the whole premise of the approach was wrong.
The plan was based on dealing with the impact and fallout of a pandemic not on stopping its spread.
That is a failure of both politicians and scientists.
Image source, EPAIt is not as if there has been no warning. During the previous decade south Asian countries changed their approaches after the spread of Sars and Mers, both of which were coronaviruses.
Taiwan and South Korea enjoyed some success in the first wave at slowing the spread of Covid and it meant restrictions and lockdowns in the early part of the pandemic were not as draconian.
Everyone's just taken their place again as former Health Secretary Matt Hancock continues to give evidence.
We're expecting this stretch to run until 13:00, so stick with us for all the key lines.
Covid Inquiry: Hancock 'profoundly sorry for each death'
Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock has appeared before the Covid Inquiry which is looking at how prepared the UK was for the pandemic.
Just before the hearing resumes after a short break, here is a recap of what's been happening this morning:
The inquiry is returning at 11:30 so stay with us for more updates. Hancock's evidence session is scheduled to conclude at 13:00.
Laura Foster
Health reporter, at the Covid Inquiry
I’m told that a couple of people whose relatives died during the pandemic held up their pictures as Matt Hancock said he was sorry for the impact it had.
Speaking to one of them in the break, they said they’d been expecting an apology but it was "unconvincing".
Hugh Pym
Health editor
Interesting that Hugo Keith KC, counsel to the inquiry, has made it clear to Matt Hancock that decisions on lockdown in March 2020 are not part of today’s proceedings.
He had to interrupt Hancock to remind him of that.
Keith had said earlier he would not be asking questions about the government response to the pandemic, the lockdown in early 2020, testing and the provision of PPE.
He stressed that his questions today would be about events before 2020 and pre-pandemic planning, the focus of the first module of the inquiry.
Perhaps he felt the need to clarify that to avoid disappointment for those present or watching from further afield.
Hancock and other former government ministers are likely to be summoned again in the autumn when decisions around lockdown and during the pandemic are scrutinised.
Time to grab a cup of tea - the Covid inquiry is taking a quick break, returning at 11:30.
Matt Hancock is asked more about Exercise Cygnus.
This pan-government, pan-NHS exercise, "did not spot the central problem in pandemic planning" and its recommendations would not have helped much, the former health secretary says.
Hancock says he does not deny the health department failed to implement some recommendations from the exercise.
The exercise took place against the backdrop of the 2016 vote to leave the European Union.
"Brexit was real", Hancock adds, when describing the pressures on resources.
We've heard Exercise Cygnus mentioned a few times in today's hearing.
Back in 2016, the government carried out a three-day test run to find out how prepared UK health services were for a flu pandemic.
At that point, the flu virus rather than a coronavirus was seen as the biggest health risk.
Exercise Cygnus involved 950 staff, from across the NHS, government and council departments, and six prisons.
The simulation tested how they would react at the peak of a hypothetical pandemic, where vaccines had been ordered but had not yet arrived.
The conclusion highlighted a lack of joined-up thinking and oversight, finding that the UK's response was" not sufficient to cope with the extreme demands of a severe pandemic".