Update 12 June 2023: Open Democracy has been able to appoint three journalists to cover the Covid-19 inquiry in the UK following a successful round of fundraising.

Laura Oliver, a freelance journalist and The Guardian’s former head of social and community journalism, former local democracy reporter and Sunderland Echo assistant editor James Harrison, and Fin Johnson, who has written for The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Open Democracy, will begin work on Tuesday when the inquiry starts.

The inquiry will be heard in several modules, and the fundraising done so far is expected to cover full-time coverage of at least the first two parts. The three freelances will be joined in producing coverage by Open Democracy’s politics chief Ruby Lott-Lavigna.