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As part of the government’s response to the first part of the Covid-19 inquiry report, the Resilience Minister told the House of Commons last week that a national pandemic response exercise will take place later in the year, preceded by the launch of the UK Resilience Academy in April.
Pat McFadden MP, Resilience Minister provided an update on a range of resilience measures including some detail about the first national exercise focused on a national pandemic in a decade.
“It will test the UK’s capabilities, plans, protocols and procedures in the event of another major pandemic. It will be led by senior Ministers, involve thousands of participants and run across all regions and nations of the UK.”
Pat McFadden MP, Resilience Minister.
The exercise will take place over a few days and involve a wide range of government departments with the Minister saying that he had asked all Cabinet Ministers for “full participation.” The outcome and lessons will, he added, be widely communicated in line with the recommendation in the Covid Inquiry.
The Minister used his statement to Parliament to confirm that the UK Resilience Academy will begin work in the spring and will see over 4000 resilience and emergency planners trained every year.
Focusing on two other recommendations in the Covid Inquiry report, the Minister spoke about who will lead a response to any future “whole system emergencies,” saying that while the centre government through the Cabinet Office needs to play a lead role, for “lower-scale emergencies, the lead Department model “still has value.”
Agreeing with another of Baroness Hallett’s recommendations about having independent input and advice into emergency preparedness, the Minister said that the government will be “establishing eight expert advisory groups to combat group-think in our understanding of risks.” Referring to the creation of ‘red teams’ to do this form of work, he said that central government would work with local resilience forums ” who provide critical knowledge and expertise.”
The statement was accompanied by the publication of the National Risk Register 2025, the first refresh since its launch in its current form in August 2023.
Read the UK Government Response to the Covid-19 Inquiry Module 1 Report.
