Covid Inquiry spends £3m on trauma support

Pandemic investigation chiefs accused of wasting taxpayer cash on emotional support for witnesses

THE Covid Inquiry has awarded more than £3 million in contracts for emotional support services in an attempt to avoid “retraumatising” its witnesses.

Inquiry chiefs were accused of presiding over a waste of money which will run until the end of February 2026.

Although two contracts allocated to Health Assured Limited were terminated last month, all inquiry participants will be offered emotional support as part of a commitment to remaining “trauma-informed” and a contract with Hestia Housing remains active.

A spokesman for the inquiry said: “These contracts provide the offer of support for anyone visiting or sharing their story with the inquiry ... we do this to reduce the risk of re-traumatisation for those who were bereaved or suffered harm as a result of the pandemic.”

A description of the support services on the Cabinet Office website said such an approach “means seeking to reduce the risk of retraumatisation to people who are engaging with the inquiry ... by offering timely, sensitive, psychologically informed emotional support”.

It added: “Emotional support is not counselling or therapy ... the focus is on facilitating the person’s engagement with the inquiry, creating support plans, facilitating stabilisation, providing psychological containment and facilitating the person’s journey through their engagement process.”

Sir Edward Leigh, a veteran Conservative MP who served as a minister under Margaret Thatcher, said: “It just all adds up to a fantastic waste of money.

“I think most people now recognise that the severity of lockdown was a huge mistake ... the inquiry really needs to focus on what most people want it to do, which is [ask] why we had to have successive lockdowns and [the] severity of lockdowns. We know from the Swedish model it probably made very little difference to people’s long-term health.”

Greg Smith, the Tory MP for Buckingham, said: “This is an unbelievable burden on the taxpayer. People will be furious that money is being spent on trying to stop people telling their traumatic stories without going into the, well, trauma of it. Surely the whole point is to get a full-throated account of what happened?”

Downing Street was forced to defend the cost of the Covid Inquiry at the end of last year when it emerged the final bill is likely to top £146 million. Official documents showed it has already spent more than £56 million and contracts worth an extra £90 million have also been signed off, making the inquiry one of the most expensive in British history. More than £50 million of taxpayer cash is being spent on lawyers.

MPS have warned that Baroness Hallett, the inquiry chairman, risks excluding groups likely to “challenge” the Government’s Covid decisions. Last year, Esther Mcvey, who now sits in the Cabinet as the “minister for common sense”, signed a letter to Baroness Hallett warning that core participants appear to be “heavily weighted towards organisations and individuals which can be fairly presumed to favour lockdowns”.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Office is advertising for two part-time clinical psychologists to provide “guidance on trauma-informed engagement across the inquiry”. Described as “an exciting role offering the opportunity to lead a pivotal team”, the jobs will pay up to £64,000 each and allow “flexibility” in how the 29.6 working hours involved are distributed across four days.

‘This is a burden on taxpayers ... surely the point is to get a fullthroated account?’