British government response to the COVID-19 pandemic

[2] Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the first national lockdown on 23 March 2020 and Parliament introduced the Coronavirus Act 2020, which granted the devolved governments emergency powers and empowered the police to enforce public health measures.

Across the country, localised lockdowns, social distancing measures, self-isolation laws for those exposed to the virus and rules on face masks were introduced (though certain exemptions were permitted),[4] as well as efforts to expand COVID-19 testing and tracing.

It also forwent the procurement process in contracts in response to shortages of PPE and medical equipment, major issues in the early months of the outbreak, and for developing a contact tracing app.

The UK government's response to the pandemic, in particular the timeliness of public health measures being introduced and lifted, has faced criticism from academic medical sources, media outlets, relatives of COVID-19 patients and various political figures.

This criticism continued amid the Partygate scandal, as multiple government officials were revealed to have breached COVID-19 social distancing restrictions during lockdowns, including Johnson and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak.

[24] In February, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) to the British government, Chris Whitty said "we basically have a strategy which depends upon four tactical aims: the first one is to contain; the second of these is to delay; the third of these is to do the science and the research; and the fourth is to mitigate so we can brace the NHS".

[30] This advice was also advocated for any person with flu-like symptoms and a history of travelling from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and areas in Italy north of Pisa, Florence and Rimini, returning to the UK since 19 February.

In a speech on 3 February, Johnson's main concern was that the "coronavirus will trigger a panic and a desire for market segregation that go beyond what is medically rational to the point of doing real and unnecessary economic damage".

[45][44] Another member of the UK government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), Graham Medley, told BBC's Newsnight that: "We're going to have to generate what we call herd immunity ... and the only way of developing that, in the absence of a vaccine, is for the majority of the population to become infected.

This reversed an interim recommendation made in January 2020, due to more information about the disease confirming low overall mortality rates, greater clinical awareness, and a specific and sensitive laboratory test, the availability of which continues to increase.

[64] The slogan "Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives" was first suggested internally in a government conference call on 19 March, days before they imposed a full national lockdown.

[83] In April, the Scottish government published plans to pursue a zero-COVID "elimination" strategy, in contrast with the rest of the UK, and expanded a "test, trace, isolate support" system.

[84] In early May, research was published which concluded that if the most vulnerable (the elderly and those with certain underlying illnesses) were completely shielded, the lockdown could mostly be lifted, avoiding "a huge economic, social and health cost", without significantly increasing severe infections and deaths.

[95] Additionally measures were announced stating that the public could exercise more than once a day in outdoor spaces such as parks, could interact with others whilst maintaining social distance and drive to other destinations from 13 May in England.

[156][157] In December 2021, proposals referred to as "Plan B" were put forward to renew work from home advice and mandatory face masks in certain settings following increased incidence in the UK and elsewhere of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.

was deployed featuring adverts showing close-up facial shots of a number of doctors, healthcare workers and COVID patients wearing oxygen masks, and asks people if they can "look them in the eyes" and tell them they are doing everything they can to stop the spread of the virus.

The acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Ed Davey, said that people were being unfairly "hung out to dry", with "their dream jobs turning into nightmares" after hundreds of MPs contacted the Chancellor.

[259][260] In September 2020, it emerged that Government Ministers were warned about the risk of fraud against the financial support schemes by Keith Morgan, CEO of the state owned British Business Bank who had concerns about the BBLS and Future Fund.

[262] In January 2021, the NCA reported that three city workers who worked for the same London financial institution had been arrested as part of an investigation into fraudulent Bounce Back Loans totalling £6 million.

[278] The Good Law Project and the Runnymede Trust launched a legal case which alleged Prime Minister Boris Johnson had acted unlawfully in awarding these three contracts, and had chosen the appointees because of their connections to the Conservative Party.

The company is owned by James Frayne (a long-term political associate of Cummings, co-founding the New Frontiers Foundation with him in 2003) and his wife Rachel Wolf, a former adviser to Michael Gove (Minister for the Cabinet Office) who co-wrote the Conservative party manifesto for the 2016 election.

[299] Several investigations by Reuters during 2020 blamed the government's slowness in recognising and responding the threat, inadequate contact tracing and early lifting of restrictions for the UK's high death toll.

[64] Investigations by Reuters also blamed abandoning contact tracing and not expanding testing as key issues leading to the magnitude of the first wave[300] and criticised the government's scientific advisers for not clearly communicating their growing concerns to ministers in a timely enough manner.

[65] In May 2020, Sir Lawrence Freedman, writing for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, accused the government of following public opinion instead of leading it when taking the lockdown decision; and of missing the threat to care homes.

Anthony Costello warned that Johnson's plans would "lead to the epidemic returning early [and] further preventable deaths",[313] and Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, said that lifting the lockdown would "allow Covid-19 to spread through the population unchecked.

The British Medical Association called the decision "unreasonable and totally unfair" and said it would lead to logistical issues, whilst GPs and clinical leaders said it would have a "terrible impact on the emotional wellbeing of their most vulnerable, at-risk patients".

[329] The government's announcement that most legal restrictions, including those related to face masks and social distancing measures, would end in July 2021 during the UK's 'third wave' partly driven by the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant, was met with criticism from scientists and public health experts.

Some experts suggested the plan could exacerbate health inequality in the United Kingdom, whilst others called for better resourcing for local authorities and clearer infection control guidance in healthcare settings to continue to manage COVID-19.

[346][347] On 21 September, Sikora alongside Carl Heneghan of University of Oxford, Sunetra Gupta and 28 signatories wrote an open letter to the government, arguing in favour of a targeted approach to lockdowns where only over-65s and the vulnerable should be shielded.

[358]: 163 Political scientists Steven Kettell and Peter Kerr argue that "the government was forced, by the unfolding circumstances, to engage in a quick-fire passing of responsibility from one set of actors, or events, to another in order to balance the shifting demands of maximising credit for their actions while eliminating any potential blame for their mistakes".