The Covid Inquiry Report: 'Too Little, Too Late'
Newscast
BBC
4.4 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 20 November 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, the latest report from the covid inquiry has found that the government did “too little, too late” to prevent deaths during the pandemic.
Chair of the inquiry, Baroness Hallett acknowleged that Boris Johnson’s government faced “unenviable choices” but said that 23 000 deaths could have been potentially avoided and added that regular rule breaking by officials undermined the public’s trust.
BBC health reporter Jim Reed and Dr Catherine Haddon programme, director at the Institue for Government, join Adam to unpick the report.
Plus, Adam is joined by Rachel Kyte UK special representative for climate who’s leading the UK’s delegation in Brazil at COP 30.
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Transcript
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| 0:26.6 | Too little, too late. |
| 0:30.6 | All four governments failed to appreciate the scale of the threat or the urgency of response it demanded in the early part of 2020, |
| 0:40.3 | relying in part on misleading assurances that the UK was properly prepared for a pandemic. |
| 0:48.3 | That was Baroness Hallett, the chair of the COVID inquiry, delivering her verdict at the end of the second stage of that inquiry, |
| 0:56.5 | which is all about how the governments of the UK managed the COVID pandemic. |
| 1:02.0 | And kind of the short version of what she's said is that the government could have locked down earlier, |
| 1:08.8 | saving tens of thousands of lives, or it could have |
| 1:11.8 | introduced restrictions earlier and more decisively, which could have prevented the lockdown in |
| 1:16.8 | the first place. There is a huge amount to digest, and it will take us back to a very difficult |
| 1:22.5 | time for all of us, but we will dive into the findings of the COVID inquiry and what it means for politics |
| 1:28.5 | and how we handle crises in the future in this country in this latest episode of Newscast. |
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| 1:40.0 | Can I have an apology, please? |
| 1:41.3 | I trust almost nobody. |
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