UK government failed on accessible information in early months of pandemic, says Covid inquiry

The Conservative government failed to ensure that vital information was provided to Deaf and disabled people in an accessible format in the early stages of the pandemic, the Covid inquiry has concluded.

The second report of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, which focuses on “core decision-making and political governance”, highlights key failures around accessible versions of information and the provision of British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters for government announcements.

The report says it was clear from the early stages of the pandemic that many disabled people – who were at greater risk of dying from the virus (see separate story) – were more likely to require help in accessing information about the risks and restrictions imposed by the crisis, including many who faced digital exclusion.

Digital exclusion was “a significant disadvantage” during the crisis, as many of the communications about the pandemic and the support available were delivered online.

The report also highlights the letters sent by the UK government to clinically extremely vulnerable people in March 2020, advising them to shield, which were only sent in standard print.

Any problems with accessing the vital information published by the UK and devolved governments were likely to cause “significant harm”, the report says.

The report particularly highlights the barriers faced by the 80,000 Deaf people in the UK whose first language was BSL.

The UK government’s “critical” press conference on 16 March 2020, which introduced household quarantining and social distancing, failed to provide any translation into BSL.

Although an on-screen interpreter was provided for press conferences from 26 March onwards, it was only available via the BBC News channel and BBC iPlayer, rather than the main BBC One broadcasts.

The UK government had claimed that it was unable to include a BSL interpreter in the room at press conferences because that would have required “additional cameras and operators”, an explanation the inquiry dismissed.

In Northern Ireland, during the first few weeks of the pandemic, there were no sign language interpreters for the daily public media briefings.

The report says: “The system worked in Scotland and Wales, both of which provided an in-person British Sign Language interpreter at all press briefings.

“The UK government and the Northern Ireland Executive should have planned their press conferences in a manner that both adhered to safety measures and met the needs of deaf people from the outset.

“Accessibility measures should not be treated as secondary to public communications – they are a fundamental component of effective public communications.”

The inquiry report particularly highlights the steps the Scottish government took to ensure accessible information.

And it says: “The devolved administrations each took certain steps to improve the accessibility of key information about the management of the pandemic.

“Such steps should be implemented by all four governments in the future.

“While the Welsh Government took positive steps to address accessibility, in the event of a future pandemic it should ensure that regard is had to such considerations from the outset.”

Among its recommendations, the inquiry calls for the UK and devolved governments to develop their own action plans for how their communications will be made more accessible during a pandemic.

As a minimum, the inquiry says, they should include providing translation of government press conferences into BSL (and Irish Sign Language in Northern Ireland) and the translation of key announcements into the most frequently spoken languages in the UK.

The second report of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, delivered by its chair, Baroness Hallett, concludes that all four governments failed to “appreciate the scale of the threat” posed by the pandemic in early 2020 or the “urgency of response it demanded”.

It highlights misleading assurances from the Department of Health and Social Care that the UK was well prepared to deal with a pandemic, while health and social care secretary Matt Hancock “gained a reputation among senior officials and advisers at 10 Downing Street for overpromising and underdelivering”.

The report from the inquiry’s second module focuses on “core decision-making and political governance” and concludes that although the various lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 saved lives, they only became “inevitable” because of the “acts and omissions” of the UK and devolved governments.

Without the lockdown on 23 March 2020, the growth in transmission of the virus would have led to an unacceptable loss of life, the inquiry found, but it says that governments’ failure to act promptly and effectively had put them in this position.

Had the lockdown been imposed a week earlier, it concludes, about 23,000 fewer people would have died in England up until 1 July 2020.

The inquiry’s public hearings will end by March 2026, with the final report scheduled to be published no later than summer 2027.

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