The chair of the independent Covid review says that public engagement in her work is ‘vitally important’.

Kate Brunner KC is currently gathering evidence for the review.

She said: ‘I want to hear from as many people with as many different experiences as possible.

‘Public engagement forms such an important part of the review because I really don’t want anyone in the Isle of Man to pick up the report and say “that doesn’t reflect what it was like in the island”.

‘Because I don’t have a database, it’s really difficult for me to contact people so I really need people to be active and contact me so I can hear from a wide range of people.’

Asked how she is gathering evidence, she explained the review is covering a wide range of topics, from vaccinations to border closures, adding: ‘The beauty of a review is the flexibility, so for every topic I figure out what the best way for me is to gather the information that I need.

‘Generally, in relation to government departments, we are obtaining all of their documentary evidence which runs to tens of thousands of documents.

‘Later on in the year, I’ll be conducting some more formal interviews as well. The really important other side to that is the public engagement, which is what’s really going to help me make a proper assessment on how well the government did, because I can’t just do that talking to government.’

The ways in which the review is gathering evidence from the public includes drop-in sessions, which will be held on March 29 and 30.

The chair added: ‘They are relatively informal sessions for people to drop in and talk to me about their experience.

‘We are inviting those who were bereaved in the pandemic to contact us for a private meeting. I recognise that for some people it was an absolutely awful and traumatic time and those people I know won’t want to stand up in a public meeting and say anything, so they’re encouraged to contact us separately.

‘We are also inviting people to make written submissions.

‘The fourth thing we’re doing is holding focus groups. For example, I’m going to talk to groups of people who worked in care homes or people who were nursing, or the Steam Packet crew and so on.

‘I encourage those people to form a group and contact us. Please get in touch because this really is the way I can do a robust and accurate review.’

Asked if she feels those who have been bereaved will value this, Ms Brunner said: ‘I hope so. I also recognise there were people who had a really terrible time during Covid and weren’t bereaved, and there were people who were ill or separated from loved ones.

‘But I also want to hear about things that went well. It’s important to recognise where good things happened so if this kind of event happens again any government can make sure it repeats the things that went well and improves others.’

Ms Brunner approaches the evidence-gathering ‘entirely as the head of an independent review team’ so as to remain unbiased.

‘There are fixed ways for me to liaise with government and it means people in government can’t contact me to ask for a private meeting,’ she said.

‘We have organised meetings, most of them are based on specific topics. The content of the meetings will all be summarised in my final report, so there’s a very high level of transparency and rigour to our processes.

‘It’s important the public understand, whether I’m talking to people in government or the public, I’m remaining in the same space which is in the middle. I’m not leaning to one side in any argument, I just need to hear it from all angles.’

All the details of the drop-in sessions and how to contact the chair can be found at www.covidreview.im