Former health secretary Matt Hancock is among witnesses to appear before the UK Covid-19 Inquiry as it investigates the pandemic鈥檚 impact on the care sector.
Mr Hancock, who resigned from government in 2021 after admitting breaking social distancing guidance by having an affair with a colleague, has given evidence to the inquiry multiple times.
He will return on Wednesday to face questions specifically about the adult social care sector.
In a previous appearance before the inquiry he admitted the so-called protective ring he said had been put around care homes early in the pandemic was not an unbroken one and insisted he understands the strength of feeling people have on the issue.
At a Downing Street press conference on May 15 2020, Mr Hancock said: 鈥淩ight from the start, we鈥檝e tried to throw a protective ring around our care homes.鈥
Bereaved families have previously branded this phrase a 鈥渟ickening lie鈥 and a 鈥渏oke鈥.
When the pandemic hit in early 2020, hospital patients were rapidly discharged into care homes in a bid to free up beds and prevent the NHS from becoming overwhelmed.
However, there was no policy in place requiring patients to be tested before admission, or for asymptomatic patients to isolate, until mid-April.
This was despite growing awareness of the risks of people without Covid-19 symptoms being able to spread the virus.
A lawyer for the families from the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice (CBFFJ) campaign group described Mr Hancock鈥檚 appearance as a 鈥渟eminal moment of the Covid inquiry that many of our clients have been waiting for鈥.
Nicola Brook, from Broudie Jackson Canter which represents more than 7,000 families from CBFFJ, said: 鈥淲hile Mr Hancock has given evidence to the inquiry before, this is the first time that he has been called early in a module, meaning he won鈥檛 be able to simply respond to others鈥 evidence.
鈥淚 only hope that he tells the truth about what he knew about the decision to discharge Covid-infected patients into care homes, which was the biggest scandal of the whole pandemic. Only then will our clients be able to get some form of closure.鈥
From Monday, module six of the inquiry will look at the effect the pandemic had on both the publicly and privately funded adult social care sector across the UK.
Among the issues to be examined will be decisions made by the UK Government and devolved administrations on moving people from hospitals into adult care and residential homes in the early stages of the pandemic.
The module will also consider how the pandemic was managed in care and residential homes, including infection prevention and control measures, testing for the virus, the availability and adequacy of personal protective equipment (PPE), and the restrictions on access to such locations by healthcare professionals and loved ones.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said many older people in care homes 鈥渉ad a truly terrible time during the pandemic鈥.
She added: 鈥淭hose older people who survived and are still with us, and their families, have waited a long time for the pandemic inquiry to focus on their experiences but now their turn has finally come, so it鈥檚 a big moment for them and for the inquiry too.鈥
The CBFFJ group has written to inquiry chairwoman, Baroness Heather Hallett, to express their concern at some 鈥渒ey decision-makers鈥 not expected to be called in this module, including former prime minister Boris Johnson.
They said: 鈥淲ithout those who were responsible for critical policies like discharging untested hospital patients into care homes, the inquiry cannot deliver a full or credible account of what happened.鈥
They insisted the module must be 鈥渁 turning point鈥 rather than 鈥渁n afterthought鈥.
鈥淲hat happened in the care sector during the pandemic is a national scar. To fail to learn the right lessons now would compound the injustice and place future lives at risk,鈥 they added.
Public hearings for the care sector module are expected to run until the end of July.