The government does not accept this recommendation. COBR (now known as the Civil Contingencies Committee (CCC)) is the government’s crisis management forum and has served governments well. It is attended by ministers from across government, senior officials, and other experts, as required. Membership is flexible according to the nature of the crisis being addressed. There is rightly a culture of confidentiality around COBR, in order to ensure free and frank discussion. At the same time, minutes of COBR meetings are taken and circulated to relevant parties. These minutes provide an accurate record of the discussion and decisions taken. COBR has rigorous information security procedures in place. If, as the report suggests, some participants felt the need to arrange alternative meetings because they did not consider COBR to be sufficiently confidential, this would have been a matter for them. The government does not believe that this would be an appropriate or productive way to conduct business, and it is not something that it would encourage.