Matt Hancock faces criticism from unions

The UNISON public services union called on former Tory health and social care secretary Matt Hancock to take responsibility for “the chaos caused and the lives lost” on his watch, as Hancock gave evidence to Module 3 of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

And the TUC and BMA doctors’ union called on Hancock to be honest and transparent about the readiness and resilience of the health service in order to learn lessons for future pandemics. BMA council chair professor Phil Banfield said Hancock’s repeated assertion that the NHS was not overwhelmed showed he was “completely detached from what was happening on the ground”.

Meanwhile, a consortium of healthcare professional bodies criticised evidence to the inquiry from senior leaders. The British Occupational Hygiene Society said evidence to the inquiry “shows a leadership culture that cares even less for science than it does for healthcare worker’s lives”.

The most senior health officials and experts in infection prevention and control confirmed that “they deem protecting against droplets and aerosols is an either/or choice”, said Barry Jones, chair of the CATA Covid-19 Airborne Transmission Alliance.

This is despite “the mass of scientific evidence” showing that “Covid-19 has a significant airborne component”.

CATA also said that healthcare workers “did not benefit from the basic protections that the law provides” under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations.