The government will not claim it did everything right during the pandemic, its lawyer has told the official inquiry into Covid-19.

It marks a departure from the frequent claim by Boris Johnson and his allies that he and the Tory government got the “big calls right”. Matt Hancock, who was health secretary during the pandemic, also said during his stint on ‘I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!’ that he did not regret any decisions made during his tenure.

Speaking at the Covid-19 inquiry today, Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) lawyer Fiona Scalding expressed “humility” and said the government understood people felt “certain decisions made by us were wrong.”

“There was frequently a need to issue guidance or create policies where there were, in reality, no good options," Scolding told the chair, Baroness Heather Hallett. “The department recognises the strength of feeling amongst some that certain decisions made by us were wrong. Decisions were often extremely finely balanced.”

"The department will not seek during the course of this inquiry to say that it did everything right, or that it would necessarily have made the same decisions in 2023 with the benefit of hindsight.”

Scolding told the inquiry that while mistakes may have been made, less was known about the virus at the time.

“We will, however, propose that it is necessary to recognise that the context of the time particularly in respect of pandemic preparedness was very different to what we know now,” she said, “and would ask you [Baroness Hallett] not to impose what we shall call a retroscope upon decision making.”

“We approach this inquiry with humility,” said Scolding. “We know there are valuable lessons to be learned. We are open-minded to learn what others say about our processes and procedures both before and during the pandemic and the decision we took by the end of 2020.”

The second day of evidence at the Covid inquiry will hear from core participants such as Public Health Scotland and the Government Office for Science, which represents the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) and the Welsh government.

It will also hear its first evidence from epidemiologists, Professor Jimmy Whitworth and Dr Charlotte Hammer.

Yesterday bereaved families were told their hardship would be recognised by the chair. The comments followed a protest outside the inquiry by the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group, whose members say they have been silenced after it emerged not a single one of the 20 witnesses put forward will be called to speak at the inquiry.

openDemocracy spoke to Mark Blackburn, who lost both his parents to Covid at the start of the pandemic. His father, who was in hospital being treated for another health condition, was “ushered out” on the evening of the first lockdown without being tested. He went home to his 78-year-old wife and later died from Covid.

“We gathered as a family, which was really difficult because we followed the rules. We didn’t embrace our mother – we grieved with her on the doorstep,” he said.

In the space of two weeks, Blackburn also lost his mother to Covid. “We weren’t allowed to be there. We couldn’t hold her hand,” he said.

Blackburn added: “I don’t think what I’ve just told you can be summarised by a third party. I appreciate the committee can’t hear 227,000 voices but it certainly must be able to hear 20 or 30.”

Bruce Tanner, who lost his mother to Covid in 2020, said questions will also need to be answered about the systemic inequalities highlighted by the pandemic.

“It wasn’t really recognised early enough that there were differences between different ethnic groups and the effects that the virus had on them. There were lots of structural problems all the way along,” he said. “I’m really here for [my mum] because all her life she campaigned for fairness and justice.”

There was also anger about the Cabinet Office launching legal action to block the release of Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages to the inquiry.

Alejandra Godoy, who lost her 75-year-old mother Orita to Covid in May 2020, described it as “a disgrace”, adding: “It makes us look like idiots. They had their own rules while they were telling us to follow another rule. And we followed it because we wanted to keep the NHS safe, we wanted to keep other people safe.”

Jo Goodman, organiser and co-founder of Covid Bereaved Families for Justice UK lost her dad at the start of the pandemic. At the protest with her 10-month-old son who never got to meet his grandfather, Goodman told openDemocracy of her hope that the inquiry will be delivered with full transparency.

“We don't know when the next pandemic might happen,” she said, adding: “We need to get to the bottom of it to ensure that we just don't allow history to repeat itself.”

The inquiry continues.