Senior ministers “sometimes avoided” Cobra meetings chaired by Matt Hancock in the early days of the pandemic, Lord Simon Stevens has told the Covid Inquiry.

In his witness statement, Lord Stevens said Cobra meetings “usefully brought together a cross-section of departments, agencies and the devolved administrations”.

“However, these meetings were arguably not optimally effective,” he wrote.

“They were very large, and when Cobra meetings were chaired by the health and social care secretary other secretaries of state sometimes avoided attending and delegated to their junior ministers instead.”

Asked by Andrew O’Connor KC if that was a reflection on Mr Hancock, Lord Stevens said: “I am not saying that was cause and effect, but that was the fact of the matter.”

“I just observed that those two coincided.”

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