David Cameron was warned in 2013 UK risk assessment ‘too secret’

Former chief scientific adviser tells Covid inquiry national strategy was not being used to ‘prevent and mitigate dangers’

• UK politics live – latest updates

David Cameron’s chief scientific adviser warned him in 2013 that the UK’s assessment of risks, including from pandemics, was not being used properly to prevent and mitigate dangers and was being kept too secret, the Covid-19 public inquiry has heard.

Sir Mark Walport, the government’s chief scientific adviser until 2017, raised the concern with the then PM in a letter and told the inquiry the national risk assessment (NRA) “was locked in departmental safes most of the time and I felt that that wasn’t the most effective way”.