Covid-19 Pandemic: Government Response

Tom Randall Excerpts

Thursday 17th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Tom Randall (Gedling) (Con)]

As my hon. Friend identified in his statement, we discovered during the evidence sessions that there is no standing secretariat for public inquiries. For example, Sir Robert Francis told us that

“we were all starting with a blank piece of paper when it came to setting up resources, so there was no idea where we would have offices or where we were going to get equipment from.”

He also said it took him four months to appoint solicitors. So does my hon. Friend agree that if we set up an inquiry sooner rather than later, it will enable the inquiry to do that important background preparatory work so that it is ready to focus on the main task at hand as soon as possible?

[Mr Wragg]

I thank my hon. Friend for that and for his contribution to the Committee’s work. Time is indeed of the essence, as there will be an inevitable lag period before such an inquiry can begin taking evidence, and we should use that time wisely, as he suggests.