Government told ‘far more work necessary’ over Covid Inquiry recommendations
Chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett said ‘radical reform is required in the crucial area of planning and resilience’.
The Government has been told that “far more work is necessary” to respond to the Covid Inquiry’s recommendations on emergency preparedness.
Chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett has told Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden that “radical reform is required in the crucial area of planning and resilience” as she accused the Government of “too little detail” in their response to some of the inquiry’s recommendations.
A letter from the chairwoman – written on March 19, and published by the inquiry on Tuesday – accuses the Government of using “opaque language” to cover “a lack” of action on proposals.
Baroness Hallett warned the UK was not prepared nor resilient enough to deal with another pandemic at the conclusion of the probe’s first module.
She made 10 recommendations in relation to how the Government and devolved administrations could better prepare for emergencies when her report was published last summer.
While she welcomed the Government’s moves such as publishing the national risk register and establishing a Cabinet committee for resilience, Baroness Hallett said the changes “have not fundamentally altered the UK’s central systems for preparing for, and responding to, whole-scale emergencies”.
She said that “far more work is necessary” and said the Government had used “opaque language that conceals a lack of concrete action” in their response to the inquiry recommendations.
“There is too little detail in the response of the UK Government’s proposals with respect to a significant number of the recommendations,” she added.
In her letter, Baroness Hallett drew particular attention to ministers’ response to recommendations two and 10.
These asked for the “lead government department model” for emergencies to be abolished and the Cabinet office to take a lead, and for the creation of a UK-wide statutory body to advise on emergency response and preparedness.
She said that “much remains to be done to set up an appropriate “mechanism” to provide the independent challenge, direction and advice required by recommendation 10″, while with point two, the “recommendation has not yet been fully accepted” and it is not clear what the greater role for the Cabinet Office will entail”.
In January, Mr McFadden announced that senior figures and the emergency services will take part in a multi-day pandemic preparedness exercise, in their response to the inquiry’s first module findings.
The national exercise is expected to be held on different days over several months in the autumn, and will involve thousands of participants across the UK.
All Government departments, local councils, emergency services and the devolved authorities have been invited to take part.
Exercise Cygnus was the last test of pandemic preparedness by the UK government, and was held in October 2016.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “We thank the chair for her letter. We will provide an update this summer on the implementation of the commitments in our Module 1 response.”
