Powers in force for dealing with emergency rather than prevention - Letwin
Hugo Keith KC says all ministers start off as amateurs and asks Letwin to what extent did he have to learn on the job in relation to emergency preparedness, resilience and response.
"Completely," Letwin answers. He says it was entirely new to him when he began.
It was only when he sat in the Cobra room, Letwin says, and discovered they were not properly prepared to deal with a crisis or avert it, and powers were in force for having an emergency rather than preventing one.
That's when he discovered there was a whole set of problems "I knew nothing about" and began to learn about them.
No formal area for preparedness planning - Letwin
BBCCopyright: BBC
"There's all the difference in the world that discovering that something is the case," Letwin continues.
He says this doesn't happen by attending to something and leaving it, it has to be focused on daily.
"I tried to do it in the fields that I'm occupied with in resilience but I'm very conscious that I didn't have enough time to do as much as I should have done."
Keith asks: "May we take it from what you've told us... the issue of resilience, of preparedness and perhaps also some of the other areas involving civil contingencies was not a formal area which was assigned to one or other of the ministerial positions that you held?"
Keith adds that it was a function that Letwin devoted to growing, but not a formal policy area.
Letwin agrees.
More emphasis needs to be put on preparedness - Letwin
Letwin says while there needs to be a group of people devoted to resilience in the sense of preparedness, they need to be separate from a group of people ready to handle emergencies as they arise
He says those roles need to be fulfilled full time, simultaneously.
"That was the one good feature of my role," he says, adding that he was involved in dealing with Ebola, flooding and other problems.
"I knew some of the problems that arose when I was trying to pursue my resilience review."
Resilience only a small part of ministerial role - Letwin
Counsel for the inquiry Hugo Keith KC has begun by pulling up Letwin's witness statement.
He is questioning him on the functions he performed whilst holding the post as Minister for Government Policy between 2010-2016 and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 2014-2016.
"Essentially, you held the resilience portfolio," Keith says.
Letwin explains the difference in his ministerial posts. He describes the role of minister as "wide ranging and unusual".
He was responsible for monitoring the implementation of the program for government and devising the second program that came along, as well as sitting at all cabinet committees, "in order to have a view of policy and where it was going."
However, on resilience, he said it was only a "small part" of the job.
He added that there hasn't been a minister that's sole purpose was emergency preparedness. Something he called "an error".
Oliver Letwin begins giving evidence
Sir Oliver Letwin, the first person giving evidence today, has just been sworn in.
He will be questioned by Hugo Keith KC, counsel of the inquiry.
Stay with us as we bring you the best lines from today.
Covid inquiry begins for the day
Baroness Hallett has entered the room and taken her seat.
The inquiry is underway again.
Who is Oliver Letwin?
PA MediaCopyright: PA Media
We heard Oliver Letwin’s name a lot during David Cameron’s evidence yesterday.
Letwin was appointed by Cameron as the minister of state for government policy in 2010. His role involved developing government policies with the Cabinet Office.
In 2016, he was appointed to work on Brexit. In the witness statement provided to the inquiry, Letwin wrote that the UK “was much better prepared” for an influenza pandemic opposed to Covid.
The Cabinet Office was responsible for the UK’s pandemic planning and preparedness, which is the focus of this module of the inquiry.
We expect to hear about Letwin’s role in preparing pandemic readiness plans.
Watch the Covid inquiry live
You can watch every moment of the Covid inquiry by pressing the Play icon at the top of this page.
If you can't see the play button please refresh your browser or reload this page on the BBC news app.
BBCCopyright: BBC
Who are we hearing from in the inquiry today?
We're ready for another full day of evidence for the UK's Covid-19 inquiry.
We're expecting today's session kick off at 10:00 BST when we'll hear from Oliver Letwin, the former minister for government policy.
He will be followed by George Osborne, former Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The hearing will break for lunch around 13:00 BST, before resuming at 14:00 BST.
After the break we will hear from Dame Sally Davies, who was the chief medical officer from 2010-2019.
Timings ran over slightly yesterday, so we'll keep you in the loop with how things are getting along.
Former Prime Minister David Cameron leaves the Covid inquiryImage caption: Former Prime Minister David Cameron leaves the Covid inquiry
On Monday, former Prime Minister David Cameron gave evidence.
He was questioned by Kate Blackwell KC, who is part of the counsel of the inquiry.
Cameron defended what Blackwell called “inadequate” health budgets, but admitted he made a mistake by only planning for flu.
Sir Christopher Wormald, permanent secretary at the Department of Health, also appeared.
He said that the UK never nationally ran out of PPE, which was questioned by the chair of the inquiry, Baroness Hallett, who said this was surprising.
The last person up was Clara Swinson - who's headed up the Department of Health and Social Care global health division since 2016.
She said there were areas worth updating in the UK wide strategy regarding a pandemic.
Covid inquiry - the key things to know
Here's a quick reminder of some of the key things to know about the UK's Covid inquiry.
It's being chaired by Baroness Hallett - a former Court of Appeal judge who previously led the inquests into the 7 July London bombings in 2005
Witnesses will be announced each week, but we expect to hear from key politicians, scientists, unions, health and care organisations, Covid bereavement groups and more
Members of the public are being encouraged to share their stories with the inquiry by filling in this form online
No-one will be found guilty or innocent during this inquiry
This is about going through what happened and learning lessons
Any recommendations made by the inquiry at the end of this process do not have to be adopted by governments
What is a public inquiry?
The public inquiry into the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic started last Tuesday.
It was launched by Boris Johnson in May 2021 and it will cover decision-making in Westminster and the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
You might be wondering what the overall aim of a public inquiry is? Well, it aims to respond to "public concern" about events - in this case.
Any inquiry has the power to make people appear as witnesses, and to provide evidence. Inquiries are expected to publish conclusions and may make recommendations.
Welcome
James Harness
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the UK Covid Inquiry, one week on from its opening day.
We’re expecting to hear from two former Conservative MPs this morning: George Osborne, who was the chancellor from 2010-16, and Oliver Letwin, who was a policy minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster at the same time.
This afternoon, we’ll also hear evidence from Dame Sally Davies, who was the chief medical officer between 2010 and 2019.
I'm here with Imogen James and Emily McGarvey in our London newsroom. Stay with us for the latest news updates, expert analysis and pictures.
Live Reporting
Edited by Alys Davies and Aoife Walsh
All times stated are UK
Get involved
Powers in force for dealing with emergency rather than prevention - Letwin
Hugo Keith KC says all ministers start off as amateurs and asks Letwin to what extent did he have to learn on the job in relation to emergency preparedness, resilience and response.
"Completely," Letwin answers. He says it was entirely new to him when he began.
It was only when he sat in the Cobra room, Letwin says, and discovered they were not properly prepared to deal with a crisis or avert it, and powers were in force for having an emergency rather than preventing one.
That's when he discovered there was a whole set of problems "I knew nothing about" and began to learn about them.
No formal area for preparedness planning - Letwin
"There's all the difference in the world that discovering that something is the case," Letwin continues.
He says this doesn't happen by attending to something and leaving it, it has to be focused on daily.
"I tried to do it in the fields that I'm occupied with in resilience but I'm very conscious that I didn't have enough time to do as much as I should have done."
Keith asks: "May we take it from what you've told us... the issue of resilience, of preparedness and perhaps also some of the other areas involving civil contingencies was not a formal area which was assigned to one or other of the ministerial positions that you held?"
Keith adds that it was a function that Letwin devoted to growing, but not a formal policy area.
Letwin agrees.
More emphasis needs to be put on preparedness - Letwin
Letwin says while there needs to be a group of people devoted to resilience in the sense of preparedness, they need to be separate from a group of people ready to handle emergencies as they arise
He says those roles need to be fulfilled full time, simultaneously.
"That was the one good feature of my role," he says, adding that he was involved in dealing with Ebola, flooding and other problems.
"I knew some of the problems that arose when I was trying to pursue my resilience review."
Resilience only a small part of ministerial role - Letwin
Counsel for the inquiry Hugo Keith KC has begun by pulling up Letwin's witness statement.
He is questioning him on the functions he performed whilst holding the post as Minister for Government Policy between 2010-2016 and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 2014-2016.
"Essentially, you held the resilience portfolio," Keith says.
Letwin explains the difference in his ministerial posts. He describes the role of minister as "wide ranging and unusual".
He was responsible for monitoring the implementation of the program for government and devising the second program that came along, as well as sitting at all cabinet committees, "in order to have a view of policy and where it was going."
However, on resilience, he said it was only a "small part" of the job.
He added that there hasn't been a minister that's sole purpose was emergency preparedness. Something he called "an error".
Oliver Letwin begins giving evidence
Sir Oliver Letwin, the first person giving evidence today, has just been sworn in.
He will be questioned by Hugo Keith KC, counsel of the inquiry.
Stay with us as we bring you the best lines from today.
Covid inquiry begins for the day
Baroness Hallett has entered the room and taken her seat.
The inquiry is underway again.
Who is Oliver Letwin?
We heard Oliver Letwin’s name a lot during David Cameron’s evidence yesterday.
Letwin was appointed by Cameron as the minister of state for government policy in 2010. His role involved developing government policies with the Cabinet Office.
In 2016, he was appointed to work on Brexit. In the witness statement provided to the inquiry, Letwin wrote that the UK “was much better prepared” for an influenza pandemic opposed to Covid.
The Cabinet Office was responsible for the UK’s pandemic planning and preparedness, which is the focus of this module of the inquiry.
We expect to hear about Letwin’s role in preparing pandemic readiness plans.
Watch the Covid inquiry live
You can watch every moment of the Covid inquiry by pressing the Play icon at the top of this page.
If you can't see the play button please refresh your browser or reload this page on the BBC news app.
Who are we hearing from in the inquiry today?
We're ready for another full day of evidence for the UK's Covid-19 inquiry.
We're expecting today's session kick off at 10:00 BST when we'll hear from Oliver Letwin, the former minister for government policy.
He will be followed by George Osborne, former Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The hearing will break for lunch around 13:00 BST, before resuming at 14:00 BST.
After the break we will hear from Dame Sally Davies, who was the chief medical officer from 2010-2019.
Timings ran over slightly yesterday, so we'll keep you in the loop with how things are getting along.
What happened yesterday?
On Monday, former Prime Minister David Cameron gave evidence.
He was questioned by Kate Blackwell KC, who is part of the counsel of the inquiry.
Cameron defended what Blackwell called “inadequate” health budgets, but admitted he made a mistake by only planning for flu.
Sir Christopher Wormald, permanent secretary at the Department of Health, also appeared.
He said that the UK never nationally ran out of PPE, which was questioned by the chair of the inquiry, Baroness Hallett, who said this was surprising.
The last person up was Clara Swinson - who's headed up the Department of Health and Social Care global health division since 2016.
She said there were areas worth updating in the UK wide strategy regarding a pandemic.
Covid inquiry - the key things to know
Here's a quick reminder of some of the key things to know about the UK's Covid inquiry.
What is a public inquiry?
The public inquiry into the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic started last Tuesday.
It was launched by Boris Johnson in May 2021 and it will cover decision-making in Westminster and the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
You might be wondering what the overall aim of a public inquiry is? Well, it aims to respond to "public concern" about events - in this case.
Any inquiry has the power to make people appear as witnesses, and to provide evidence. Inquiries are expected to publish conclusions and may make recommendations.
Welcome
James Harness
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the UK Covid Inquiry, one week on from its opening day.
We’re expecting to hear from two former Conservative MPs this morning: George Osborne, who was the chancellor from 2010-16, and Oliver Letwin, who was a policy minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster at the same time.
This afternoon, we’ll also hear evidence from Dame Sally Davies, who was the chief medical officer between 2010 and 2019.
I'm here with Imogen James and Emily McGarvey in our London newsroom. Stay with us for the latest news updates, expert analysis and pictures.