Boris Johnson has denied there was a failure to plan for Covid school closures at the start of the pandemic, directly contradicting evidence given by former education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson. The former prime minister told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry on Tuesday it would be "surprising" if there had been no planning, insisting it was "obvious" there would need to be consideration of closing schools.
Johnson's testimony challenges Williamson's account from last week, when the former education secretary said he had not asked Department for Education (DfE) officials to prepare an assessment on school closure impacts in early 2020. Williamson had told the inquiry that advice at the time "was not recommending closures" and Number 10 had not commissioned such work.
Timeline of planning evidence
Johnson insisted preparatory work had been undertaken, pointing to discussions by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies from February onwards. He said the Cabinet was discussing school closures in March and he remembered the subject "coming up repeatedly".
The former prime minister revealed he received a note from the DfE on 15 March requesting a meeting about school closures. Johnson said the note covered "all kinds of stuff that are going to be necessary to enact school closures", including safeguarding, exams and teacher training.
Criticism of department officials
Johnson expressed surprise that the DfE's permanent secretary did not feel it necessary to examine contingency arrangements. He said he would not have expected the department to wait for instructions from Number 10 before planning for closures, though he was "very much hoping that we wouldn't have to close schools" and thought it was a "nightmare idea".
When asked whether he accepted there had been no cross-government focus on schools until March 2020, Johnson disagreed. The former prime minister denied there had been a "dereliction of duty" in failing to plan for school closures, though he acknowledged officials had been "overwhelmed by the speed of events".
Exam chaos acknowledgment
Regarding the chaotic exam situation in summer 2020, Johnson admitted the government did not get the model right initially. "Was Covid a disaster? Yes. Was the loss of education a disaster? Yes. Was the loss of exams a disaster? Yes," he said.
Johnson acknowledged that the disappointment and anger of students was also disastrous but had to be seen in the context of dealing with a much bigger crisis. His comments followed criticism from Sir Jon Coles, former director-general for schools at the DfE, who called the lack of earlier planning an "extraordinary dereliction of duty".
Sources used: "PA Media" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
