consensus was that there is no documented asymptomatic transmission therefore policy was based on the assumption that covid transmitted as source. i had by this stage a significant amount of anecdotal evidence and hence i have gone over the sand over this and over this in my mind. if i had just said the science is different, that would not have carried the system with me because i m not representative of the people, if you like, as the secretary of state and the scientific advice was very clear to the contrary. what i could have done was said you know, that may be the formal scientific advice, i am overrunning it and say instead marvellous and asymptomatic transmission, that would have had risks on the other side of assuming spread for it may have been unlikely to happen and but with hindsight of course i wish i had done that hence it is my single biggest regret but what i am trying. mr it is my single biggest regret but what i am trying. . . what i am trying. mr hancock, er
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those two cases were on the 30th and sist those two cases were on the 30th and 31st of january and there would almost certainly be more. the central point according to these minutes is that government had a plan to deal with illness. yes. you didn t in fact, plan to deal with illness. 133 you didn t in fact, within the department of health and social care, commission until the 10th of february the plan, the battle plan as you describe in your statement, or the action plan as it was published on the 3rd of march. and therefore, what plan was it that you were referring to cabinet colleagues too, to deal with the illness? firstly, we had the pandemic flu strategy set out in 2011, but by this point we had a whole series of different plans for expanding different plans for expanding different areas. so we had a plan for the expansion of testing within the hd. that plan didn t go fast enough and i had to take serious action to change that in the middle of march. we had a plan for
positions. is that a fair analysis, do you think? positions. is that a fair analysis, do you think? got completely but i understand do you think? got completely but i understand their do you think? got completely but i understand their point do you think? got completely but i understand their point of - do you think? got completely but i understand their point of view. - do you think? got completely but i understand their point of view. for nicola sturgeon s evidence, she asks, do i agree with michael gove s decisions and whether collegiate? yes, and she also goes on to say there were some suggestions she made about policy the uk government did not follow up. but she did not necessarily expect us to do so. it is in the nature of devolution that decision making on a uk wide level we take by the uk government, it is better that is informed by the views of the devolved administrations, and i always thought to make colleagues aware of how devolved administrations felt and
a good understanding of the impact on the nhs capacity. what i had a good instinct for was seeing what was happening elsewhere in the world and knowing having had a number of conversations with mr sweeney about the legislation that might be needed, the worst case scenario which worryingly was looking like something that might actually happen, but a worst case scenario, we hadn t done any of the planning, how people will get fed if they have to stay at home, what will happen to schools if people have to stay at home and it is those, you might expect my policy background as a domestic civil servants that is probably where my mind went to more than else. i probably still at that point fervently hoped that the planning we would have to do for that extreme scenario wasn t in fact going to be needed, but i really knew we had to get that extreme scenario actually worked up. we have heard ou scenario actually worked up. we have heard you describe scenario actually worked up. we hav