The Covid Minutes: Officials began twice weekly meetings with UK three months into pandemic

Thursday 13 June 2024

Dedicated Covid-19 meetings with UK Government officials began three months after the start of the pandemic and weeks after the first case hit our shores, newly released minutes show.

The Ministry of Justice is responsible for the UK’s relationship with the Crown Dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man.

It set up and chaired the UK-CDs Covid-19 Contact Group which had its inaugural meeting in April 2020.

After learning of the group’s existence through responses to a constitutional inquiry in November, Express submitted a Freedom of Information request to find out its purpose, who was involved, how often it met and also asking for the release of meeting minutes.

To help ensure a response, the scope of the request was narrowed on 15 December to meeting minutes from February, March and April 2021 in a bid to provide a snapshot of what was discussed at an important time in the second lockdown.

The MoJ responded earlier this month.

Pictured: The States of Guernsey produced a timeline as part of its review of its Covid response. 

“The MoJ established and chaired the Group” it said.

“Its core membership comprised representatives from the MoJ Crown Dependencies Team, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the External Engagement Teams in the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. 

“The Group’s primary focus was to discuss and share information on the coordination and deployment of supplies and on support and up to date countermeasures to assist the Crown Dependencies' domestic planning and responses to the ongoing pandemic. 

“Other UK government departments attended the Group on an as needed basis when they had information relevant to their policy responsibilities for sharing with the Crown Dependencies. 

“Those departments included, though not exhaustively, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Home Office and Department for Transport.”

The first case of Covid-19 documented in the UK was on 31 January 2020 and in Guernsey on 9 March.

A lockdown followed in the island on 25 March.

“The inaugural meeting of the Group was in April 2020, with meetings initially being held  twice a week, becoming weekly and then, as the pandemic eased over 2022, fortnightly,  concluding with monthly meetings over the latter half of 2022 ending in November 2022.”