The UK government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic combined some “big achievements with some big mistakes”, a Parliament panel concluded in a report published on Tuesday.

The ‘Coronavirus: lessons learned to date’ joint inquiry by cross-party MPs from the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee and Science and Technology Committee is highly critical of the government’s early response to the pandemic and concludes that thousands of lives were lost due to delays and mistakes by ministers and their scientific advisers. It also highlights the successes, praising the country’s vaccine rollout against Covid-19 as a “guide for the future”.