Health Secretary Matt Hancock MP will on Thursday answer questions from MPs on the government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, including the discharge of hospital patients to care homes during the first wave early last year.
The session, which kicks off at 9.30am on 10 May, is part of the ‘Coronavirus: lessons learnt’ joint inquiry held by the Health and Social Care Committee and Science and Technology Committee.
The joint inquiry considers the lessons that can be drawn from the government’s handling of the pandemic that could be applied now and in the future.
MPs will focus on the decisions taken around the spring 2020 and autumn/ qinter 2020 lockdowns; UK preparedness for pandemics; and the impact of variant B.1.167.2 on the government's lockdown-easing roadmap.
Hancock has come under fire in recent days after Dominic Cummings – the former chief adviser of Boris Johnson – accused him of misleading the Prime Minister.
Cummings said Hancock assured the Prime Minister in March that hospital patients would be tested for Covid prior to being discharged into care homes.
It later emerged more than 25,000 patients in England had been discharged without tests.
Hancock denied the accusation during the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme on Sunday morning.
