baroness hallett said she was determined to conclude the inquiry work as quickly as possible.e government. i want them to learn lessons. if they were truly sorry, they'd have been honest in the early days of the pandemic. we want lessons to be learnt, so no one has to go through what we've been going through for the last two years. it won't bring our loved ones back. we know that, but we don't want it to happen to anyone else. we just want our loved ones to finally rest in peace. - i'd like to see them recognise the mistakes that were made and correct them with future pandemic responses so we don't do the same things that we've done this time around, so we don't get it so badly wrong. the time is 6.18. our top story this evening... the two conservative leadership hopefuls begin six weeks of campaigning with a focus on the economy. and coming up... why teenagers are turning to tiktok and instagram for their news. coming up in sportsday in the next 15 minutes on the bbc news channel... we'll head live to oregon on the seventh day of the world athletics championships. after missi

the official inquiry into the uk's pandemic preparedness has been launched by its chair baroness halletts this year and the first witnesses will be called next spring. 0ur health correspondent jim reed is here. what's the scope of this inquiry going to be?— what's the scope of this inquiry auoin to be? , ~ , .,, ., going to be? very likely to be one ofthe going to be? very likely to be one of the most _ going to be? very likely to be one of the most complex _ going to be? very likely to be one of the most complex public- going to be? very likely to be one i of the most complex public inquiries in british legal history. it is going to look at the events of the last two, two and a half years through the pandemic, which has led to the loss of 180,000 lives in this country alone. they will look at decisions made by politicians, civil servants, scientists, doctors. all of this is being chaired and led by an appeal courtjudge, baroness hallett, and we heard from herfor the first time today in a recorded statement marking the official start of the process. i statement marking the official start

baroness hallett, the former high courtjudge who is leading the inquiry, says it's time for facts, notrly 178,000 people in the uk have died with coronavirus. the hearings will begin in september, and the first witnesses will be called next spring. professor david nabarro is a special envoy at the world health organization to the director general on covid—19. he says it's a mistake to think with an inquiry under way that we're simply dealing with an historical fact. the most important thing about this virus is that it is not going away and it comes back in surges every two or three months. the surges are often driven by new variants. we don't know in advance what these variants are going to do. as you just said, the current variants because a pretty unpleasant illness. they are incredibly transmissible and they are responsible for lots of absenteeism right now. but i am not personally keen to see mandates reintroduced and i certainly do not want to imply that lockdown is have to come back again. what matters right now is integrated action at the local level to work out with all the loc

the official inquiry into the uk's pandemic preparedness has been launched by its chair baroness hallette, it is going _ planes the scope of this. it is huge, it is going to _ planes the scope of this. it 3 huge, it is going to look at everything notjust what huge, it is going to look at everything not just what we have seen over the last two years, but also the run up to the pandemic rather the country was properly prepared for the pandemic. it is all being led by a retired appeal court judge. i would being led by a retired appeal court judge. iwould imagine being led by a retired appeal court judge. i would imagine by this time next year she will become a very fully familiarface. she next year she will become a very fully familiar face. she was speaking for the first time today in her capacity as chair and that is because it was the official opening, the starting of this process. it was a recorded statement, this is what she had to say. i a recorded statement, this is what she had to say-— she had to say. i know that others have significant _ she had to say. i know that others have sig

the official inquiry into the uk's pandemic preparedness has been launched by its chair baroness hallettuse it was the official opening, or the mark that kind of started this process. it was recorded, a recorded statement. this is what she had to say. i know that others have suffered significant loss, too, as a result of the pandemic, and every person has had their life changed to some extent. for my part, i will do my very best to undertake the inquiry in a way that acknowledges this suffering and seeks to reduce the scope for others to suffer in the same way in the future. but, jim, interesting hearing those words, and, as you point out, the scope of this is so huge. so much to look at. you just look at the figures now for people with covid—19 at the moment. this is still ongoing for many people in a very real way. i imagine the families of those relatives who died, the battle here is to make sure they are central to what's going on. very much so. i mean, in the last kind of an hour or so we've had some comments from the covid—19 bereaved families forjustice campaign, which is the orga

it's being led by baroness heather hallett. she outlined what she wanted to achieve.possible, bearing in mind the inquiry wide—ranging terms of reference and the need for the inquiry process to be rigorous and fair. with such a wide scope, i will need to be ruthless. it will be impossible to call every witness related to every event, issue or major decision. the inquiry must focus on the key issues. another is to learn lessons for future pandemics. i am determined to undertake the work of this inquiry as speedily as possible so that lessons are learned before another pandemic strikes. that lessons are learned before another pandemic strikes.— pandemic strikes. that was the first woman to chair _ pandemic strikes. that was the first woman to chair the barristers. - she previously led the inquests into the terrorist attacks in london on sevenjuly 2005. in her inquiry she will assess decisions made by politicians, civil servants, scientists and doctors over the past two years. here's our health correspondent, jim reed. splitting the public inquiry into sections. — splitt

we had a statement from baroness heather hallett who is conducting the inquiry and she has made a statementtting off a start after many delays. more on that and so much soon but first let's get a look at the weather. tomasz schafernaker. the sunnier skies across northern, western and southern areas but even here hazy at times, perhaps one or two showers as well. temperatures in the middle of the afternoon around the middle of the afternoon around the middle of the afternoon around the mid 20s in the south are typically high teens, nudging to 20 celsius, so pleasant conditions out there but i mentioned a few showers, certainly over the course of the night, the south of the uk, spreading northwards, it will be quite muggy first thing on friday morning, 1a—17 c in many major towns and cities and then tomorrow the possibility of thunderstorms developing in the south and in wales, the midlands, perhaps further north, too, but very hit and miss and of course we really do need the rain so any rainfall is good news, just not too much on a short space of time. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines.