Former education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson is to face a grilling by the UK Covid-19 Inquiry on the impacts of school closures on children in the pandemic.
In his time in the role Sir Gavin came under repeated pressure to resign over his handling of disruption to schools and the fiasco around grading of GCSE and A-level students amid cancelled exams.
After more than two years in the job, he was sacked from his cabinet role in September 2021, although he at the time declared he was “proud” of his post-16 education reforms “despite the challenges” of the pandemic.
His expected evidence session was confirmed during a preliminary hearing for module eight of the inquiry – examining the impact of the pandemic on children and young people in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Lead counsel Clair Dobson KC told Friday’s hearing: “We’re aware that important figures like the then-secretary of state for education Sir Gavin Williamson did not give evidence in module two and it is the intention of module eight to call him, for example, to give oral evidence.”
Module two focused on core UK decision-making and political governance.
In a hearing last year the former children’s commissioner for England was highly critical of government decisions regarding children, branding the prioritisation of reopening theme parks and Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme over schools a “terrible mistake”.
Anne Longfield, who was children’s commissioner for England until February 2021, argued this played a huge part in children’s negative lockdown experience.
She said the pandemic had been a “disaster” for many disadvantaged and already vulnerable children, criticising the “indecisive” and even at times “indifferent” government approach to the impact of policy decisions.
Of decision-making regarding children’s best interests, she said: “It was very clear he (Sir Gavin) wasn’t part of some of those (decision-making) discussions. There was an empty chair at the table.”
Schools were closed to most children in the pandemic amid fears over spread of the coronavirus.
At a previous inquiry hearing former prime minister Boris Johnson said he “hated” having to put restrictions on schools but defended a decision not to reopen them in summer 2020 as it would not have been “practically very easy to do”.
He said he had “listened respectfully” to his many colleagues, including Sir Gavin, who wanted to keep schools open, but added that doing so “wasn’t a runner” due to the risk of virus transmission in those environments.
Of what the children and young people module will focus on, Ms Dobson said: “We wish to understand the extent to which there was pre-planning for the possibility that education would have to be delivered remotely to most children.
“We are seeking evidence about and will examine what was understood at the time about the impacts that the closures of schools and lockdowns were having on children.”
While education is a devolved matter, the inquiry will look at decisions taken in each of the four nations.
The module will also consider the impact of the pandemic on children at risk, children whose families receive support from social services, young carers, those in care and care leavers, as well as those in youth custody and those in the immigration system.
Core participants in this module include Save the Children UK, the Centre for Young Lives and the Child Poverty Action Group.
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK Group said they “feel betrayed” at not being granted core participant status for module eight, saying the decision “doesn’t make any sense”.
A further preliminary hearing is scheduled for summer, with full hearings for module eight expected to begin at the end of September 2025.
