A general view of the entrance to the building where the COVID-19 inquiry preliminary hearing for Module 2 was held, in London, the UK, on June 6, 2023 (AP)

Families of Covid victims have described the probe launched into the government's handling of the pandemic as a "farce" for dismissing their input.

“Without learning from the experiences of our members, how can the inquiry properly evaluate the decisions made by those in charge?” said Barbara Herbert, a member of the COVID Bereaved Families for Justice group who lost her husband to the virus.

“We are people that will be able to put reality to the theory that [senior judge Heather] Hallett is testing, that has got to happen, otherwise it’s just a farce,” Saleyha Ahsan, a doctor whose father Ahsan-ul-Haq also died, said.

A spokesperson for the probe said that it's possible that the chair would call for testimony from the bereaved in later phases of the probe. The first phase is scheduled for next week.

Earlier in May, it was reported that the probe used its significant legal powers, as per section 21 of the Inquiries Act 2005, to demand unredacted documents. However, the Cabinet Office refused, claiming only “unambiguously irrelevant” material had been removed and that the inquiry’s demands were unlawful.

Pursuing the argument that the probe does not have the power to compel it to hand over the unredacted relevant material, the Office's legal team claims that disclosing the information will stymie future policy talks and establish a bad precedent in reference to the Human Rights Act and data protection legislation.