"I would find it hard to pick one day when the regulations were followed properly inside that building," former deputy cabinet secretary, Helen MacNamara, says - referring to No 10 in Downing Street.

"I know that because.... there was one meeting where we absolutely adhered to the guidance, to the letter, and that was the cabinet meeting, and everybody moaned about it and tried to change it repeatedly. So I know how exceptional it was to really, really, really properly follow the guidance."

Lawyer Andrew O'Connor KC asks MacNamara about the importance of people leading the country following the rules at the time.

MacNamara agrees on its importance, and when asked about a party she attended on 18 June 2020, she says: "This shouldn't have happened".

"In retrospect all sorts of things were wrong," she adds.

She says people were "rightly offended" that she attended a party herself.

Image source, UK Covid inquiry

Following on from the discussion on strong language in Downing Street, Helen MacNamara is now being asked about the wider culture in No 10.

She says many people were brought into No 10 and were working with colleagues that they had never met.

MacNamara says she believed that if people were able to get to know each other, they might have been able to work better together.

"People didn't know each other's names," she tells the inquiry.

When questioned about crude WhatsApp messages exchanged between Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings that were read out at the inquiry yesterday, Helen MacNamara says there was "definitely a toxic culture" in government at the time.

In August 2020, messages referring to MacNamara sent by Cummings said: "we cannot keep dealing with this horrific meltdown of the British state while dodging stilettos from that [expletive].”

MacNamara says: "it's horrible to read, but it's both surprising and not surprising to me."

She acknowledges that Cummings was frustrated with her at the time, but says: "all I was doing was working in the service of the then-PM and defending his interests".

The former deputy cabinet secretary goes on to deny allegations in the messages that she was sacking special advisors.

"It wasn't a pleasant place to work," she says, adding that she is disappointed Johnson didn't pull him up on "some of that violent and misogynistic language".

"It is just miles away from what is proper or decent or what the country deserves".

Image source, Covid Inquiry

Helen MacNamara, the second-most senior civil servant during the pandemic, says the lack of psychological support for staff at the time is a "profound source of regret" for her.

Despite her efforts, her requests to provide psychological support in the Cabinet Office were ignored, she says.

She mentions that she had successfully implemented such support in other departments at a low cost. MacNamara says she asked, "a number of times in a number of different ways," but nothing came of it.

"I do think it's a gap not to have psychological support available," she tells the inquiry.

Image source, UK Covid Inquiry

Andrew O'Connor KC, the inquiry lawyer, asks more about reports of sexism and misogyny at the Cabinet Office at the same time as the Covid pandemic.

"The female perspective was being missed in advice and decision-making," former deputy cabinet secretary, Helen MacNamara, says.

"There weren't any women talking, which was unusual," MacNamara explains, adding that women felt they'd become "invisible overnight" during Covid.

MacNamara says the "dominant culture was macho and heroic" and it was both "striking and awful" to witness the culture change in government - where women at the heart of government felt unable to voice their views.

Inquiry lawyer Andrew O'Connor KC brings up a draft report Helen MacNamara had written with Martin Reynolds - the head of Boris Johnson's private office at the time - in May 2020 about the state of the Cabinet Office at the time.

MacNamara says it came after she was alerted to "serious problems" within the team, with staff "under great pressure and unhappy".

The draft report says the Cabinet Office and No 10 were not "working as one team", with "fights over ownership" and a "universal sense of powerlessness".

It also mentions junior female staff members being talked over or ignored.

MacNamara says the report was later shared with the prime minister and cabinet secretary and brands it: "pretty devastating."

"It's accurate", she adds.

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

Top civil servant Helen MacNamara is scathing about the lack of care for staff working in government during the pandemic.

Her witness statement reveals that it took seven months for hand sanitiser to be set up beside a door linking Downing Street and the Cabinet Office.

She points out that everyone who had to use that door would have to touch a key pad.

Remember, this is a point in the pandemic where people were being told to take extra care not to spread the virus.

Most people were being told not to go in to work. MacNamara says: "It's indicative of the lack of care."

Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News

An extraordinary number of Downing Street staff seemed to catch Covid around the end of March and start of April 2020.

The prime minister ended up in hospital but was far from the only high level official to get infected. That list included the Health Secretary Matt Hancock, the scientist Neil Ferguson, the cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill and deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara herself.

She says it is "absolutely fair" to say there were not the right protections in place to stop the virus spreading at the time.

MacNamara suggests there were no procedures to avoid having key staff in the same room, or to designate alternate roles so work could carry on easily if someone was infected.

"I hope that people are better looked after [in the future]," she tells the inquiry.

Image source, UK Covid Inquiry

Inquiry lawyer Andrew O'Connor KC presses Helen MacNamara on the preparedness of government when then-prime minister Boris Johnson contracted Covid-19 himself, and was admitted to intensive care in April 2020.

She confirms there were no plans to prepare for Johnson being absent, and it felt like they were living and working in a "dystopian nightmare".

MacNamara says that it was "obviously awful" for the prime minister to be so "gravely ill".

A document she drafted when Johnson was unwell, which is being referenced at the inquiry now, described rough plans in a scenario where the prime minister was unable to communicate his wishes.

In her statement, she goes on to say: "God knows what we say here [if the PM's illness got worse]".

While we've been hearing from former deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara at the inquiry, Dominic Cummings - who spoke at the inquiry himself yesterday - has said MacNamara was "right" to state that the Cabinet Office "failed to follow orders given in 2020 to keep records of everything".

"I asked for this to happen - so did Helen - yet the Cabinet Office has destroyed a lot of documents," he's written in a post on X.

His latest remarks come after the inquiry was yesterday shown a number of WhatsApp messages in which Cummings – Johnson’s top adviser at the height of the pandemic – used expletives and abusive language about MacNamara in August 2020.

“I will personally handcuff her and escort her from the building,” he said.

He told the inquiry his language was "appalling" but denied being a misogynist.

Helen MacNamara, the second-most senior civil servant during the pandemic, is back in her seat to face more questions from inquiry lawyer, Andrew O'Connor KC.

We'll continue to bring you some of the highlights in text form - but you can also stream the whole thing live. A reminder that this feed may include strong language.

Officials' decisions early in the pandemic relating to people in prisons were characterised by an "absence of humanity," Helen MacNamara's witness statement says.

The former deputy cabinet secretary's witness statement says that two weeks into the first lockdown, ministers had not taken a decision on releasing prisoners from non-Covid secure accommodation, putting prisoners and staff at risk.

When questioned by inquiry counsel Andrew O'Connor KC, she says that there was a "lack of care or comprehension that prisoners would need to be looked after".

She adds that it "felt very cold, in terms of the decision-making".

Image source, PA Media

The inquiry's lawyer has just been discussing an encounter Helen MacNamara had with Dominic Cummings and others in the prime minister's study from 13 March 2020.

Although PM Boris Johnson was not present, MacNamara says in her witness statement she had gone to tell them the UK was "heading for a disaster".

Her alarmed exchange - 10 days before the first lockdown - followed a conversation with Department for Health official Mark Sweeney, who according to her statement, "had been told for years that there is a whole plan for this". But there was no plan, he told her.

"We are absolutely [expletive]," she said.

"I think the country is heading for a disaster. I think we are going to kill thousands of people," she told the group, according to her witness statement.

"It was horrible," she tells the inquiry. There was "increasing concern that we were really radically in the wrong place".

"It was a sense of foreboding... I hope nobody sitting in that office never has that again."

The hearing has paused for a short break, but we'll continue to catch you up with some of the key lines that emerged during the last few moments of questioning by inquiry lawyer Andrew O'Connor KC.

Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News

Through the pandemic, ministers repeatedly said they were "following the science" when it came to the big decisions on lockdowns and other restrictions.

Helen MacNamara says she questioned whether it was ever possible to understand what "the science" was, given there are so many different scientific questions and views.

She was concerned it looked like the government was not making decisions itself, but simply following blindly what scientists said.

It was "unfair on the scientists involved", she added.

"I thought it was an odd thing to stick so religiously to, although I could see its value as a comms line," she said.

In diary entries previously read out at the inquiry, former chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Valance raised concerns that scientists were being used as "human shields" for the government.

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

Image source, UK Covid Inquiry

A big question being explored this week is when it became clear the UK would have to lock down - and whether the government moved quickly enough.

We've just heard Helen MacNamara say that she gave a stark warning ten days before the first lockdown in March 2020.

She was in Downing Street and told senior officials: "I think this country is heading for a disaster. I think we are going to kill thousands of people".

But like ex-No 10 communications director Lee Cain said yesterday, MacNamara also highlights the difficulty of locking down - which was unprecedented at the time.

Former deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara criticises the government's "following the science" mantra, which she says was a "cop-out".

She questions why the government would blindly follow advice, especially when they "didn't understand what the science was" - they wouldn't "follow the economics" in an equivalent way.

To her, this approach just allowed ministers to avoid making decisions and putting unfair pressure on scientists.

She says she saw Boris Johnosn repeatedly misunderstand the science, pointing out that many key decision makers - her included - had degrees in History.

This "ignorance," she said, led to a lack of confidence in questioning scientific advice.

She believes it is “not right to abdicate responsibility to an unelected" group of scientists - these choices should instead belong to elected officials.

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

Image source, UK Covid inquiry

The role of Matt Hancock as health secretary has come up a few times at the inquiry this week.

We had Dominic Cummings claiming he wasn't telling the truth - and messages saying he should be sacked.

Helen MacNamara's evidence is also very critical.

She says Hancock told cabinet that plans were in place.

But we've heard people say they don't think there was a real plan to deal with coronavirus.

Like yesterday, some very strong language is being broadcast on the live feed from the inquiry as messages are read out in evidence.

This is because the lead counsel to the inquiry has decided that this evidence is pertinent to its aim of examining the UK’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and trying to learn lessons for the future.

The inquiry is chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett, a former Court of Appeal judge.

While the BBC would not normally broadcast such strong language, we believe there is a clear public interest in reporting the inquiry's proceedings in full.

Helen MacNamara voices her frustration over the lack of transparency on the state of plans to respond to the pandemic.

In her witness statement, MacNamara says the cabinet was told "time and time again" by the then-Health Minister Matt Hancock that plans were in place for the UK's Covid response.

"It really shows our lack of understanding," the former deputy cabinet secretary says.

"I don't think we understood how serious Covid could be for certain people," she says, adding that there was a limited understanding on the impacts of long Covid.

She was also asked about discussions about "chicken pox parties," which is a notion that people might have better health outcomes if they were exposed to the virus.

She says she didn't believe that approach was a good idea, and could not recall her former boss Mark Sedwill advocating for such "chicken pox parties".