sally

In this year's John Lewis advert, the heroine, Sally, is seen frantically doing last-minute shopping for her sister.

However, the counsel for Ms Sturgess' family, Jesse Nicholls, said Dame Sally had said she had given the advice publicly, “because that obviously should have happened but it didn’t”.

The inquiry also discussed a letter, dated 16 March, from Dame Sally to Sir Jeremy Heywood which said that on March 7, at the request of No 10 and the Metropolitan Police, she had issued a statement alongside Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley announcing the risk to public health as a result of the incident was “low, based on the current evidence available”.

The inquiry into Ms Sturgess' death heard how Dame Sally Davies had worried about someone picking up Novichok from the moment she knew "Russian agents had been involved" in the incident.

In her witness statement, read to the inquiry by Francesca Whitelaw KC, Dame Sally said she had been concerned "about the disposal by the foreign agents of any residual nerve agent".