Retired appeal court judge to lead covid inquiry

Cross-bench peer Baroness Heather Hallett has been lined up to lead the much-anticipated inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic, according to written statement from prime minister Boris Johnson today. 

Mr Johnson added the covid-19 inquiry “will play a key role in examining the UK’s pandemic response and ensuring that we learn the right lessons for the future”.

The prime minister announced in May this year that an independent, judge-led public inquiry would start in the coming spring, and it would “place the state’s actions under the microscope”.

The inquiry’s full remit has yet to be announced, but its scope will cover all four nations in the UK.

Baroness Hallett said in a statement: “I am honoured to be appointed to chair the covid-19 Inquiry. The pandemic has affected us all, some much worse than others. I am acutely conscious of the suffering it has caused to so many…

“I want to assure the British public that, once the terms of reference are finalised, I shall do my utmost to ensure the inquiry answers as many questions as possible about the UK’s response to the pandemic so that we can all learn lessons for the future.”

Baroness Hallett led the 2010-11 independent inquest into the killing of 52 people in the 7 July 2005 bombings in London.

In January, she was put in charge of the inquest into Dawn Sturgess’ death following the Salisbury Novichok poisonings in 2018. That inquest has since been upgraded to a judge-led inquiry, due to start in early 2022. Today’s statement said a new chair for that inquiry would be appointed “early in the new year”. 

Baroness Hallett was made a peer in Theresa May’s resignation honours list in autumn 2019, retiring that October after serving as Lady Justice of Appeal since 2005 and vice president of the Court of Appeal criminal division since 2013. She was the fifth woman to sit in the Court of Appeal.