Following last week’s ruling that policies were “unlawful” for failing to take into account the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from the non-symptomatic transmission of Covid-19, the government has said it won’t be pursuing an appeal.

Former health secretary Matt Hancock apologised for people’s ‘pain and anguish’ following the ruling and a spokesperson said that “the government notes the court’s judgment and that the court dismissed most aspects of the claimants’ judicial review”.

“While we are disappointed that the court did not accept all of the points we put before it, we do not see a public interest in an appeal on those points, as the right place for these matters to be considered is the public inquiry.

“Our thoughts are with all those who lost loved ones during the pandemic. Our aim throughout has been to protect the public from the threat to life and health posed by Covid-19 and we specifically sought to safeguard care home residents.”

The judges found no evidence that Hancock or anyone advising him addressed the risk of asymptomatic transmission to care home residents in England, or that he considered or was asked to consider the question of isolating asymptomatic admissions.

However, the “growing appreciation that asymptomatic transmission was a real possibility ought to have prompted a change in government policy concerning care homes earlier than it did” was raised as early as March 13 by figures from the government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance.

In a previous statement, Hancock’s spokesman said Public Health England had failed to tell ministers about asymptomatic transmission and he wished it had been brought to his attention sooner.

More than 20,000 elderly or disabled care home residents died from Covid-19 in England and Wales during the first wave (up to the end of August 2020).

While care groups hailed the ruling as a “first step to justice”, they acknowledged that bereaved families will want to know why more was not done to protect their loved ones and dismissed Hancock’s claims of a “protective” ring around care homes as “non-existent”, a “sickening lie” and a “joke”.

Hancock responded that the government “did all that we could with the information that I had at the time”, adding that the response was “all about learning”.