Children owed formal apology for damage done during Covid, UK inquiry hears

October 2, 2025

Children owed formal apology for damage done during Covid, UK inquiry hears

Children’s commissioner during pandemic says government failed children and blames lockdowns for explosion in vulnerability among young

The government should apologise to children for the damaging mistakes and policy errors it committed during the pandemic, the former children’s commissioner for England has told the Covid-19 inquiry.

Giving evidence to the inquiry’s public hearing, Anne Longfield said a “doom loop” of fatalism among ministers meant the government failed to do more to help children. She argued that the prolonged lockdowns and school closures are responsible for the explosion in mental health, welfare and behaviour difficulties still being experienced by children and young people.

Longfield, who was children’s commissioner at the peak of the pandemic, said the government should issue a formal apology for the “avoidable mistakes” it made to the children whose lives have been blighted by Covid and its after-effects.

“The children and young people who experienced the Covid pandemic – some of whom will now be adults and some of whom are just starting school – are owed a formal apology from the prime minister in parliament once the inquiry has published its final report,” Longfield said.

“An apology would give the government an opportunity to formally acknowledge the avoidable mistakes and the damage that was done to many children’s wellbeing, education, health, development, and safety, following decisions that were made by the then government in 2020 and 2021.

“It would be a chance to say sorry, and to promise that lessons really will be learned, should there be another pandemic or national emergency in the future.”

The Covid-19 public inquiry this week started its investigation focusing on the treatment of children and young people during the pandemic, and will later hear evidence from policymakers and politicians including Gavin Williamson, who was education secretary during the period.

Longfield said her advice or views were rarely sought by the government during the pandemic, and told the inquiry that the interests of children often “came behind in the queue to pubs, shops, theme parks but also adults, throughout”.

Longfield was particularly critical of the government’s decision to drop many elements of social care provision during the pandemic, including diluting requirements for personal visits with at-risk children.

The restrictions on visits and the increasing use of online interviews allowed some families to evade or conceal their living conditions, Longfield suggested.

“Families, if they wanted to, could quite quickly see how they could hold the interview in a tidy, very clean room, and the rest of the house might not be the same,” Longfield said.