Written Evidence Submitted by Public Health England

(CLL0121)

Joint inquiry into Coronavirus: Lessons Learnt – inaccurate mention of PHE officials

I write to request a correction to an error mentioned during the evidence session with the Secretary of State on Thursday 10 June 2021.

Referring to a whistle blower report Dr Eamonn O’ Moore and Dr Julia Verne were incorrectly named. I would like to confirm that they were not involved in the production of care home guidance at the time. More generally, many officials and experts are involved in gathering evidence to produce guidance and you will agree that attributing responsibility to individuals in this way is misleading.

I would therefore be grateful if the Committee would take the following steps to rectify this error:

• Add a footnote to the evidence session’s transcript to state the following: During the session the names of Dr Eamonn O’ Moore and Dr Julia Verne were mentioned inaccurately. They were not involved in the production of the guidance.

• Ensure the names of these PHE officials are not noted in any reports of the Committee on this matter given that the information is factually incorrect.

The same PHE officials were also mentioned by name in the Byline times and I have written to the journalist who has since retracted the names in the online report.

Michael Brodie

Interim Chief Executive

(21 June 2021)