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Professor Clare Bambra, NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria’s lead for Health Inequalities, has given further evidence to the UK Covid‑19 Inquiry (18 Feb 2026) as part of Module 10, which examines the pandemic’s impact on society.

Professor Bambra, from Newcastle University, was called to give evidence in her capacity as a leading expert in Health Inequalities, alongside Professor Sir Michael Marmot, who is also an internationally recognised expert in the field.

They gave evidence in relation to a report prepared for the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, which drew on research supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) – including the ARC North East and North Cumbria – and which examined how Covid‑19 affected different communities across the UK, in different ways.

The report provided an overview of trends in socio-economic inequalities in some of the key social determinants of health during the pandemic period – namely, income, poverty, debt and housing. It also examined socio-economic inequalities in Covid-19 mortality; all-cause mortality; excess deaths; life expectancy and healthy life expectancy; Long Covid; and other
health-related outcomes (specifically alcohol consumption, smoking and physical activity, obesity and loneliness) during the pandemic.

It also explored the impacts of the protections and mitigations put in place by the UK and devolved governments on health inequalities including lockdown; the Universal Credit uplift; the furlough scheme; housing protections; and the national vaccination programme.

‘Fix the roof while the sun is shining’

The report recommends that to reduce health inequalities in pandemics, we need to reduce health inequalities outside of pandemic periods and ‘fix the roof while the sun is
shining’. This way, the health of all communities across the UK would be better placed to withstand future pandemics.

Recommendations also include commissioning further research to examine the drivers of pandemic inequalities and how to reduce them – examining the role of environmental, biological, social and economic factors in shaping health inequalities both generally and during pandemics.

You can read the report here

Watch a recording of the proceedings

Professor Bambra said: “Covid‑19 exposed deep and long‑standing health inequalities across the UK, and those inequalities shaped people’s experiences of the pandemic in profound ways.

“Our report and the evidence within it aims to highlight not only the scale of these disparities, but also their consequences for communities, particularly within areas of socio- economic deprivation, including in the North of England.”

The Covid-19 Inquiry is chaired by Baroness Hallett, a former Court of Appeal judge. Baroness Hallett concluded the evidence session by giving her personal thanks to Professor Clare Bambra and Professor Sir Michael Marmot for their significant contribution to the Inquiry.

She said: “Thank you so much for all the work that you’ve done helping the Inquiry, for coming back again, and for work that, even if we didn’t call you as a witness, we made reference to in other modules. I’m really grateful to you, and thank you for the work you do to highlight and therefore fight inequalities.”

The NIHR’s Northern ARCs – ARC North East and North Cumbria, ARC Yorkshire and Humber, ARC North West Coast and ARC Greater Manchester – have led a cross-ARC programme of research on Covid‑19 and health inequalities since early 2020.

This work has highlighted the scale and evolution of regional health inequalities during the pandemic, their underlying causes, and their health and social impacts.

Key findings include clear evidence of the disproportionate impact of Covid‑19 on the North of England, affecting both health and productivity, including impacts on mental health.

The work also evaluated the effectiveness of the national vaccine roll out in reducing inequalities in Covid-19.

Read more about this programme of work: Understanding the impacts of COVID-19 in the North of England to help shape future policy – ARC

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry, chaired by Baroness Hallett, opened in July 2022 to examine the UK’s response to and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and to learn lessons for the future.

Professor Bambra previously gave evidence in Module 1 of the Inquiry, which investigated the Government’s preparedness and resilience for a pandemic.

Find out more about the UK Covid-19 Inquiry