Prime Minister Boris Johnson has chosen Honorary Fellow and St Hugh’s alumna, The Rt Hon Baroness Heather Hallett DBE PC (Jurisprudence, 1968) to chair the public inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic.
Baroness Hallett will begin work on setting the inquiry’s terms of reference in January 2022, with the inquiry due to begin in the spring.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:
‘I want to thank Baroness Hallett for agreeing to take on the position of Chair of the Covid-19 Inquiry.
She brings a wealth of experience to the role and I know shares my determination that the inquiry examines in a forensic and thoroughgoing way the government’s response to the pandemic.’
The Rt Hon Baroness Heather Hallett DBE PC, said:
‘I am honoured to be appointed to chair the Covid-19 Inquiry. The pandemic has affected us all, some much worse than others. I am acutely conscious of the suffering it has caused to so many.
In the new year I shall be seeking views from those who have lost loved ones and all other affected groups about the Inquiry’s terms of reference.
I want to assure the British public that, once the terms of reference are finalised, I shall do my utmost to ensure the Inquiry answers as many questions as possible about the UK’s response to the pandemic so that we can all learn lessons for the future.’
Baroness Hallett, whose father was an assistant chief constable, studied Jurisprudence at St Hugh’s before being called to the Bar in 1972. In 1989 she became the 34th woman to be promoted to Queen’s Counsel. She was profiled by Alumni Association President, Veronica Lowe, (Modern History, 1969), as part of our series of online profiles on pioneering alumnae to mark 100 years of Oxford degrees for women. Please click here to read the profile.
