Coronavirus inquiry must not be ‘a finger-pointing exercise’
A post-coronavirus inquiry should not turn into a politicised “finger-pointing exercise”, according to the chief of the UK’s national academy for humanities and social sciences.
Chief executive of the British Academy Hetan Shah told City A.M.‘s daily podcast The City View that an inquiry into the government’s response should be done on a “no-fault basis” and if it is “overly politicised then we may not get the best answers”.
There have been numerous calls for a future inquiry into the coronavirus response, with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer labelling it “inevitable”.
Shah, who was formerly executive director of the Royal Statistical Society, said an inquiry should take place on similar grounds as air crash investigations.
“I think it would be a very valuable exercise, I think it would be particularly valuable if it were focussed on a non-blame culture,” he said.
“As you probably know, whenever there is an aeroplane accident there is always a post-mortem of that sort and it’s done on a no-fault basis. Just looking to improve at every stage.
“And in the same way, our state can’t be ready for everything so what are the lessons that we can learn so we can improve for next time?
“If it tries to be a finger pointing exercise, where it’s overly politicised, then we may not get the best answers out of such an approach.”
The UK’s Covid-19 death toll surpassed 26,000 people yesterday, after the government moved to include care home deaths in the official figure.