COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom in the context of "COVID-19 vaccination in the United Kingdom"

Mark Joseph Carney (born March 16, 1965) is a Canadian politician and economist who has been serving as the 24th prime minister of Canada since 2025. He has also been leader of the Liberal Party and the member of Parliament (MP) for Nepean since 2025. He previously was Governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 and Governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020.

Carney was born in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University in 1987. He then studied at the University of Oxford, where he earned a master's degree in 1993 and a doctorate in 1995, both in economics. He pursued a career at the investment bank Goldman Sachs before joining the Bank of Canada as a deputy governor in 2003. In 2004, he was recruited to the Department of Finance Canada as a senior associate deputy minister. From 2008 to 2013, Carney served as the eighth governor of the Bank of Canada, overseeing Canadian monetary policy during the 2008 global financial crisis. In 2011, he was appointed as chair of the Financial Stability Board, a position which he held for two terms until 2018. Following his term as Governor of the Bank of Canada, Carney was appointed as the 120th governor of the Bank of England, becoming the first non-British citizen to be appointed to the role. He served from 2013 to 2020, leading the British central bank's responses to Brexit and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coincident full censuses have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 (during the Second World War), Ireland in 1921/Northern Ireland in 1931, and Scotland in 2021. In addition to providing detailed information about national demographics, the results of the census play an important part in the calculation of resource allocation to regional and local service providers by the UK government.

The most recent UK census took place in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on 21 March 2021. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the census in Scotland was delayed to 20 March 2022.

Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. It has five members of Parliament in the House of Commons, one member of the House of Lords, two members of the London Assembly, one member of the Senedd, one member of the Scottish Parliament and one police and crime commissioner. It also controls twelve local councils. It is right-wing and to the right of the Conservative Party. Nigel Farage has been Leader of Reform UK since June 2024.

Co-founded by Farage and Catherine Blaiklock in 2018 as the Brexit Party, advocating a no-deal Brexit, it won the most seats at the 2019 European Parliament election in the UK, but won no seats at the 2019 general election. The UK withdrew from the European Union in January 2020, and later in the same year the COVID-19 pandemic began in the UK. The Conservative government imposed a series of national lockdowns and Farage focused on anti-lockdown campaigning. The party was renamed Reform UK in January 2021. Farage stepped down as leader in March 2021 and was succeeded by Richard Tice.

The Tompkins Table is an annual ranking that lists the Colleges of the University of Cambridge in order of their undergraduate students' performances in that year's examinations. Two colleges—Darwin and Clare Hall—do not have undergraduate students and do not feature in the list. It was created in 1981 by Peter Tompkins, then a third-year undergraduate mathematics student at Trinity College, who compiled it for many years. It was formerly published by The Independent. Since 2016, it has been published by Varsity, a student newspaper of the University of Cambridge. It is not an official University of Cambridge table. It does not take account of students who are not candidates for Honours degrees, or those who have failed to gain a degree. It was not published in 2020 or 2021 as a result of the restrictions to the examination process brought about as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also not published in 2023.

Park House stands on the Sandringham estate in North Norfolk, England. It was built by Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) as a home for General Sir William Knollys, who had been appointed comptroller of the prince's household in 1862. In the mid-20th century, the house was let, and in the 1960s was rented by John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (later 8th Earl Spencer). On 1 July 1961 his fourth child, Diana Frances Spencer (later the Princess of Wales), was born at Park House. In the later 20th century, the building was run as a hotel managed by the Leonard Cheshire charity. Following the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic the charity decided to exit the lease. As of 2025, the house is vacant.

Stansted Airport (IATA: STN, ICAO: EGSS) is an international airport serving the south-east of England. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, in the district of Uttlesford, Essex; it lies 42 miles (68 km; 36 nmi) north-east of Central London.

As London's third-busiest airport, Stansted serves over 180 destinations across Europe, Asia and North Africa. London Stansted is a base for a number of European low-cost carriers; this includes being the largest base for low-cost airline Ryanair, with over 150 destinations served by the airline. As of 2022, it is the fourth-busiest airport in the United Kingdom, after Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, it ranked second in the country. Stansted's runway is also used by private companies, such as the Harrods Aviation, Titan Airways and XJet terminals, which are private ground handlers that can handle private flights, charter flights and state visits.

Heather Carol Hallett, Baroness Hallett, DBE, PC, KC (born 16 December 1949), is a retired British judge of the Court of Appeal and a crossbench life peer. The first woman to chair the Bar Council and the fifth woman to sit in the Court of Appeal, Hallett led the independent inquest into the 7/7 bombings. In April 2019, she was appointed Chair of the Security Vettings Appeal Panel. In December 2021, she was announced as the chair of the public inquiry into the UK Government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. On 29 June 2022, the Government accepted Baroness Hallett's proposed terms of reference for the inquiry, with minor changes suggested by the devolved administrations.

Partygate was a political scandal in the United Kingdom about gatherings of government and Conservative Party staff during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, when public health restrictions prohibited most gatherings. The scandal contributed to Boris Johnson's downfall as Prime Minister and his resignation as an MP.

While several lockdowns were in place, gatherings took place at 10 Downing Street, its garden and other government and Conservative Party buildings. Reports of these events later attracted media attention, public backlash and political controversy. In January 2022, twelve gatherings came under investigation by the Metropolitan Police, including at least three attended by Johnson, the prime minister. The police issued 126 fixed penalty notices to 83 individuals, including Johnson, his wife Carrie and Rishi Sunak (then Chancellor of the Exchequer, who also subsequently became prime minister), who all apologised and paid the penalties.