The Covid inquiry has been accused of keeping secrets after its chief ruled it won’t publish the complete contents of Sir Patrick Vallance’s pandemic diaries.
A copy of the former chief scientific officer’s personal notes was shared with the inquiry, and extracts have been frequently used during testimony and questioning.
The entries shed light on a “chaotic” atmosphere at Number 10 and Boris Johnson’s “bipolar” decision-making, making headlines when Sir Patrick, his colleagues and the former PM testified last week.
Lawyers representing the scientist have argued that the notes – written every night during the pandemic – should not be released in their complete form, as they would infringe on his human rights.
The decision has not gone down well with members of the public, some of whom have said they “don’t see the logic”.
Sir Patrick’s legal team argued that officials should only publish words from his notes that were directly relevant to questioning and that going any further would breach his rights.
Inquiry chairman Baroness Heather Hallett has concurred and ruled today that no further extracts will be published.
She confirmed the move when asked by Hugo Keith KC, the inquiry counsel, whether she would keep the publication limited ahead of closing submissions for the inquiry’s second module on Wednesday, December 13.
Mr Keith said: “You will recall that during Module Two, during the oral hearing, you ruled on an interim basis that only individual extracts from the transcribed notes would be put up on the screen and thereby published.”
“On December 7, you provisionally indicated to the core participants through an email…that you were minded to adhere to the approach which you had adopted earlier in the hearing, which was that only the individual excerpts to which reference had been made would be published.
“That email was sent to the core participants and they were given the chance to make submissions in response to your provisional-minded decision, but no submissions have been received in response.”
Mr Keith asked whether he may request she “make that provisional finding final and published”, to which Baroness Hallett replied: “I do.”
Social media users have criticised the decision on X, formerly known as Twitter, with Nigelj asking: “What secrets are being kept?”
Another user, Roger Armand Walker, said he didn’t “see the logic” in not releasing the rest of Sir Patrick’s notes.
He said: “For days the lead counsel to the Covid Inquiry – Hugo Keith – quoted juicy excerpts from the diary of Sir Patrick Vallance. Today the inquiry chairman has banned publication of the whole diary because that would breach Vallance’s human rights. I don’t see the logic.”
