Former UK health secretary Jeremy Hunt said failures while he was in office may have hampered Britain's Covid-19 pandemic response.
Mr Hunt, who led the Department of Health from 2012 to 2018, said he regretted not recruiting more frontline nurses and doctors during his time in charge of England’s National Health Service.
Speaking to the British Medical Journal, Mr Hunt said the staffing system needs urgent reform as he called on the government to publish figures on exact requirements each year.
"If you don't plan for the NHS workforce strategically, it ends up costing the taxpayer much more because the NHS then ends up recruiting locum doctors and agency nurses who are much more expensive," he told the BMJ.
Previous analysis by the Unison trade union showed there were 106,000 vacancies across NHS England, including over 44,000 vacancies in nursing. Labour’s Shadow health minster Jon Ashworth described the figures as “shocking” when they were released in December 2019, just as the coronavirus pandemic was taking hold in China.
An OECD report in 2019, found that the UK had just 2.8 doctors and 7.8 nurses per 1,000 people. The average across the OECD's 36 member countries was 3.5 doctors and 8.8 nurses.
Mr Hunt said the UK failed to learn the lessons from previous disease outbreaks in Asia, such as SARS and MERS, and should have focused on 'test and trace' earlier in the pandemic.
"We've really been on the back foot from the start on test and trace, and in some ways it dates back to the period when I was health secretary," he said. "It's why there is this stark difference in the effectiveness of our responses compared with countries in East Asia."
However, Mr Hunt said he believes the biggest mistakes made during the pandemic were related to the discharging of Covid patients into care homes.
According to the BMJ, Hunt supported calls for a public inquiry into the UK's handling of the pandemic, but not in the immediate future.
However, the implementation and such as vaccine development and distribution should also be examined by any future inquiry, he says.
"We have had probably the most effective vaccination programme anywhere in the world, in terms of the speed of approving and distributing vaccines [in the UK], but also ... this is the country that developed one of the vaccines that has been approved for use," he says. "The UK has punched well above its weight in terms of helping the world find a solution to this terrible nightmare."
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Ben Okri,
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
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Rating:****
