This afternoon we'll be hearing evidence from Prof Duncan Selbie, the founding chief executive of Public Health England - an organisation which was active in the pandemic but has now been replaced by the UK Health Security Agency.

Public Health England was criticised by some in the earlier stages of the Covid pandemic over the UK’s testing capacity and personal protective equipment (PPE) stocks.

Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that Public Health England was being replaced in August 2020.

In December that year, Selbie was elected as president of the International Association of Public Health Institutes, where he remains in post.

Laura Foster
Health reporter at the Covid Inquiry

Image source, Reuters

Matt Hancock is heckled as he leaves the Covid Inquiry building in central London, with people shouting "killer" and "how many have died">Meanwhile, the groups who represent those who’ve lost loved ones during the pandemic turn their backs on him in unison as he quickly runs down the steps of Dorland House and jumps into the waiting car.

Was Hancock right on healthcare spending claim?published at 13:38 British Summer Time 27 June 2023

13:38 BST 27 June 2023

While giving evidence a little earlier, former Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the inquiry: “Other countries choose to spend a higher proportion of GDP on healthcare.”

He was talking about measuring healthcare spending by comparing it with the size of a country's economy.

He was right.

In the period we’re talking about before the pandemic, the UK was spending the second smallest proportion of GDP on healthcare in the G7 group of big economies. Take a look:

But Hancock also talked about the efficiency of the UK healthcare system - while the US spends the most on healthcare in the G7, it ranks behind the UK on several measures of health outcomes.

Earlier, former Health Secretary Matt Hancock said government planning for a potential pandemic had been "completely wrong".

Watch the 40-second clip below to see how he thinks the UK and other Western countries could have done better:

Pandemic planning was an 'absolute tragedy', Hancock sayspublished at 13:28 British Summer Time 27 June 2023

13:28 BST 27 June 2023

Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News

That was a fascinating few hours.

It's fair to say Hugo Keith KC, counsel for the Inquiry, didn't pull his punches.

"You bear ministerial responsibility for that calamitous state of affairs, do you not">"I couldn't agree more and it's an absolute tragedy," he replied.

Laura Foster
Health reporter at the Covid Inquiry

After he finished giving evidence, Matt Hancock walked over to the public gallery to speak to families who lost loved ones during the pandemic - but was rebuffed.

He approached Amanda Herring Murrell saying: "I just wanted to say I’m sorry" before he was cut off by them saying "Go away! Get your face out of it" before she turned her back on him.

He then left the room.

Ms Herring Murrell who was by now in tears was hugged and comforted by other of the national Covid memorial wall group.

She told the BBC: "I will stare at him when he’s that far away but I cannot have him that close to me."

Former Health Secretary for England Matt Hancock has been giving evidence today at the UK-wide Covid-19 inquiry, where he was quizzed on the government's pandemic preparations.

• Speaking on the lack of preparedness, Hancock said he was "profoundly sorry" for every death caused by Covid-19 and he understood why some find it difficult to accept his apology

• He said the UK's attitude of focusing on the consequences of a disaster and not on preventing it was “completely wrong"
• Hancock claimed planning was focused on availability of body bags and where to bury the dead, instead of how to stop the pandemic happening and supressing the virus
• Pandemic plans focusing on flu was not the "central flaw", he said
• The former health secretary said when he started the job he was told the UK was “the best place in the world” for preparedness.

• He added there was not "a day that goes by" he does not think about those who died due to Covid

And that's it, after three hours (with a 15-minute break) former Health Secretary Matt Hancock has finished giving evidence.

This will not be the only time he will give evidence to the inquiry - today he was only being asked about how prepared the UK was for the pandemic, which is what the inquiry is currently considering.

His evidence covered a wide range of areas from adult social care to PPE, but his main argument was that UK pandemic preparations were too focused on "the consequences of a disaster" rather than how to stop it.

Hancock is likely to be called back for the inquiry's second module - decision making and political governance - in the autumn.

Keith concludes his questions to the former health secretary, saying: "Lions led by structural donkeys, Mr Hancock. Personally, everyone gave their all, but the system was not fit for purpose."

Hancock replies: "That's absolutely right. That was a problem across the western world and it goes back a long, long way in the assumptions underpinning how we plan for these things.

"It must never happen again."

Pushed about health inequalities, former Health Secretary Matt Hancock says there was consideration on a clinical basis for the needs of the most vulnerable, but not on a socio-economic basis.

Describing the pandemic as "unprecedented", Hancock says everyone in the health area gave "their all".

This just underlines why we need to get the right lessons out of the inquiry, he says,.

Hancock its that the system was not fit for purpose, saying it was a problem across the West.

Matt Hancock says he prioritised vaccines in of preparing for a pandemic, telling the inquiry he worked to enhance domestic manufacturing capability.

"And I did a huge amount of work on stopping anti-vax content," he adds.

"I was worried about that for normal, everyday, vaccines for MMR and the flu jab - but it was also very important ahead of a pandemic."

He said vaccination was the one area in which the UK performed "incredibly well" during the pandemic.

"We of course had the first vaccine in the world," Hancock adds.

As his final round of questions draws to a close, counsel to the inquiry Hugo Keith KC turns to PPE - which Matt Hancock says the government started buying in January 2020.

The problems with its stockpiles were "very significant" he says, saying the supplies needed to be accessible and distributed quickly.

The logistical complexity of setting up supply chains is "exceptionally difficult", he tells the inquiry.

Matt Hancock takes aim at the allocation of funding in government now.

This year we spent £53bn on physical military defence, whereas he UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) budget is £450m, he says.

"And yet over 220k people have died of Covid so far.

"It's completely indefensible," Hancock says.

Image source, Reuters

Anti-vaccine protestors have gathered outside the Covid Inquiry.

One protestor has been arrested outside Dorland House, near London's Paddington railway station, where the inquiry is taking place

The woman was protesting about Covid vaccination. She said she had been arrested for swearing.

Outside the venue banners hang with claims about the vaccine and about six protestors hold yellow signs.

It must be said that according to independent teams of researchers, the benefits of Covid vaccines far outweigh any known harms.

Figures suggest the vaccines are more than 90% effective at preventing deaths, falling to 50% after six months.

Our reporter at the inquiry says the protest can not be heard inside the building, but said they are making a lot of noise.

Protestors were last at the inquiry when Sir Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance gave evidence last week.

Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock has suggested there should be a government minister who would be solely responsible for resilience across the board.

This minister would have an official structure underneath, he says, warning that this should not let other departments off the hook.

He says the person would not need to attend cabinet, but says what in fact matters is whether they have the ear of the prime minister.

Lucy Gilder
BBC News

Image source, Reuters

Earlier Matt Hancock told the inquiry that when he became health secretary in 2018: "I was told we had a very significant stockpile of PPE and we did."

The problem, he added, was that it was "extremely hard to get it out fast enough when the crisis hit".

In January 2020 there were a reported 400 million items of PPE in the pandemic stockpile, external, according to the National Audit Office (NAO), which monitors government spending. New PPE was ordered in February 2020, Hancock told a previous inquiry.

By April 2020 – a month into the UK’s first lockdown – the UK’s pandemic stockpile had just 3% of the estimated daily requirement of gowns to manage Covid-19, according to the NAO’s report.

It also found that just 14% of PPE items were distributed to social care providers of all PPE items nationally distributed, between 20 March and 31 July 2020.

What everybody in the Western world failed to see was that lockdowns were going to be necessary, Hancock tells the inquiry.

"It is the single most important thing we can learn [from] as a country," he adds.

Matt Hancock goes on to say he had to overrule initial advice not to quarantine people who were being flown back to the UK from Wuhan in China.

"It's madness," he says.

He says it was written into international health regulations that you should not close borders.

This was a World Health Organization (WHO) problem and not a UK problem, he adds.

Reflecting on what we have heard so far, Hugo Keith KC says: "These failings materially hampered the United Kingdom's ability to prevents death."

Matt Hancock now embarks on an imioned response.

"The central failure that hampered the UK's response was the refusal and the explicit decision that it would not be possible to halt the spread of a new pandemic," he says.

"That is wrong. That is at the centre of the failure of preparation."

He continues: "All of the other considerations are small - important but small, compared with the colossal scale of failure in the assumption that it would not be possible... to stop the spread of a disease."

"It's an absolute tragedy," he concludes.