The voices of some of those who suffered most in the Covid pandemic will finally be heard as the UK Covid-19 Inquiry officially began its first day of evidence today.

Two years after then-prime minister Boris Johnson announced a public inquiry would be set up, chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett formally opened the first substantive hearing on Tuesday 13th June.

Following her statement, a video featuring people from across the UK sharing their experiences of loss was played to those gathered at the hearing centre in west London.

A statement from the inquiry team ahead of the opening warned that the film contained “some of those who suffered most during the pandemic” and that it may be “difficult to watch”.

The first module of the inquiry is expected to last around six weeks, during which there will be a focus on whether the pandemic was properly planned for and “whether the UK was adequately ready for that eventuality”.

Elkan Abrahamson, a solicitor representing the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice (CBFFJ) UK group, which has almost 7,000 members, said Tuesday “marks the end of a two-year battle by the bereaved to get a statutory public inquiry”.

He said: “As a nation, we have many lessons to learn from the pandemic and we must start to learn them now and avoid needless deaths.”

The campaign group has complained of feeling marginalised after putting forward 20 people to be considered as witnesses for the first module, none of whom it said have been called to give evidence.

But a spokeswoman for the Inquiry said Lady Hallett “has been clear she hasn’t ruled out calling testimony from bereaved people in later investigations, for example with the use of do not resuscitate orders”.

The spokeswoman also highlighted the Every Story Matters campaign where people can share their experiences with the Inquiry.

Tuesday’s hearing also featured opening statements by the counsel to the Inquiry and core participants, including a lawyer for the CBFFJ group.

Speaking after the first morning of public hearings at the Covid-19 Inquiry, Mr Abrahamson said: “It’s been a sobering day. I want to pay tribute to all those bereaved families who have travelled to London today, many of whom travelled through the night to be here. It is down to their persistence, hard work, and resilience that we have a statutory inquiry.

“Yet, this day and this inquiry isn’t just about them, it’s about every single one of us whose lives were upturned by the pandemic.

“No one sitting at home listening to or watching the inquiry today should be in any doubt that what is uncovered during this module on preparedness and in future modules, has the potential to prevent future deaths in their family.

“We believe that the inquiry will show how ill prepared we were as a nation. We knew of the very real risk of a pandemic but failed to prepare properly. Our greatest hope right now is that the current power struggles in government are put to one side, that all parties bring real candour to the process, and that there is a genuine commitment to learn lessons and make the hard decisions required so that we do better when the next pandemic hits.”

The Inquiry is split into six modules, with public hearings scheduled to conclude by summer 2026, and interim reports published before then.

Lady Hallett is planning to publish reports for Module 1 and 2 (core UK decision-making and political governance) next year.