**For immediate use: Thursday 2^nd October 2025**

Baroness Longfield calls for a formal Government apology to children for the damaging mistakes made during the Covid pandemic

Baroness Anne Longfield, the former Children’s Commissioner for England, has today urged the Government to deliver a formal Prime Ministerial apology in Parliament to children and young people in England, in recognition of the avoidable mistakes affecting children made by the then Government’s in its response to the Covid pandemic.

Speaking at the Covid Inquiry this morning, Baroness Longfield, who was Children’s Commissioner for England during the pandemic lockdowns, called for the formal apology to be made as part of the Government’s response to the Inquiry’s final report.

In a statement published after giving her oral evidence to the Covid Inquiry, Baroness Longfield said:

“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.

“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.

“It will also acknowledge a deeper, uncomfortable truth about how we see children and young people in our society. It would recognise that children and young people were overlooked and frequently ignored by the then Government in its planning for a pandemic, in the delivery of its response to Covid, and its longer-term impact - and that this was disastrous for some children.

“An apology would acknowledge that many vulnerable children were exposed to greater harms and serious, dangerous risks both in the home, outside it, and online; that the closure and reopening of schools for most children was shambolic and had a long-term impact on many children’s learning, development and for some safety; that not exempting young children from the “rule of six” - as happened in Scotland and Wales and which enabled them to play with friends and see grandparents - was harmful to children’s health and development, and unnecessary; that decisions relating to children’s social care and children in the secure estate did not take adequate account of the impact on many of those children; and that insufficient thought or funding was allocated to supporting children to recover post-pandemic.

“The apology should also recognise that children’s interests were frequently secondary to those of adults when decisions were made, most notably when non-essential shops, pubs, theme parks and zoos opened while schools stayed closed to most children in June 2020, and that millions of children made huge sacrifices to protect adults which often went unrecognised and unrewarded.

“The Government should promise that, in the event of any future pandemic, children’s interests will be at the heart of decision-making; that they will have a prominent voice at the top table; that schools should always be the last to close and first to open; and that funding and planning should go into providing a ‘Nightingale hospital’ level of response to keeping schools open whenever possible, and ensuring that schools are supported to ensure the attendance of vulnerable children.

“Finally, the apology should recognise that children’s education, their health, their development, their rights, and their safety will be seen in future as a political and policy priority for our nation on the same scale and importance as adults; and that funding and support will be specifically allocated post-pandemic to protecting children’s interests, rights, and safety, and boosting their life chances.”

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ENDS

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Further information: jo.green@centreforyounglives.org

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