Forty-Sixth Report Government preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons for government on risk

Select Committee
Public Accounts Committee HC 952 23 March 2022
Report Status Government responded
Conclusions & Recommendations 22 items (7 recs)
Source View on Parliament website
Government Response (AI assessment · 21 of 22 classified)
Accepted 13
Acknowledged 7
Not Addressed 1
Clear

Recommendations

6 results
2 Accepted
The pandemic has demonstrated variability in departments’ risk management.
Recommendation
The pandemic has demonstrated variability in departments’ risk management. A recent cross-government review of risk management by the Government Internal Audit Agency highlighted significant variability across departments, including the 6 Government preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons for government on … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government is developing a training programme for risk professionals and non-experts to improve understanding of the Orange Book, and the NSRA and NRPAs are shared to ensure understanding of risks, while risk management remains the responsibility of departments.
HM Treasury
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3 Accepted
There would be significant benefits in improving the public’s awareness of the main risks facing...
Recommendation
There would be significant benefits in improving the public’s awareness of the main risks facing the country and what government is doing about them. The public and Parliament have limited awareness of the main risks facing the country and of … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government will increase public awareness of the main risks facing the UK and report annually to Parliament on actions taken to mitigate risks, and changes made as a result of consultations, through the forthcoming Resilience Strategy and building on the National Risk Register.
HM Treasury
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4 Accepted
The pandemic has highlighted the critical role of international collaboration for managing the risks that...
Recommendation
The pandemic has highlighted the critical role of international collaboration for managing the risks that the UK faces. Given the increasingly interconnected nature of our world, several of the main risks facing the UK may originate abroad and, if they … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the Committee's recommendation and is working to build on the UK’s existing international collaborations, securing commitments on critical global health risks and supporting the Global Health Security Initiative (GHSI).
HM Treasury
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5 Accepted
Government would have been better prepared for COVID-19 if it had applied learning from previous...
Recommendation
Government would have been better prepared for COVID-19 if it had applied learning from previous incidents and exercises. Government was unprepared for a pandemic with widespread asymptomatic transmission, but this was not unprecedented. The early spread of HIV, too, was … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government has done extensive work to model a range of scenarios to better understand the levels of ‘bounce-back’ demand.
HM Treasury
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6 Accepted
Government’s slow progress in improving data quality and completeness has hampered its preparedness for this...
Recommendation
Government’s slow progress in improving data quality and completeness has hampered its preparedness for this and future pandemics. We have repeatedly highlighted longstanding issues with the quality of data held by government and with its ability to use data effectively … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government states that the National Situation Centre (SitCen) will use the National Strategic Risk Assessment (NSRA) framework for prioritizing data and that access to social care data collected to monitor COVID-19 will continue as long as these data collections remain in place, with SitCen gaining access to relevant monitoring data if needed in the future.
HM Treasury
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13 Accepted
The Cabinet Office recognised that the UK needs to further strengthen international cooperation and noted...
Recommendation
The Cabinet Office recognised that the UK needs to further strengthen international cooperation and noted that this will be a central feature of the UK resilience strategy. The Department stated that the UK is seeking a new pandemic treaty through … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees to build on existing international collaborations, plays an active role in multilateral fora and with bilateral partners, and secured commitments on critical global health risks during the UK’s 2021 G7 Presidency.
HM Treasury
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8 Conclusion Accepted
The NAO found that, before the pandemic, departments lacked an agreed understanding of risk tolerance, such as which consequences of a pandemic they deemed acceptable and which consequences they needed to mitigate. The Cabinet Office agreed that government reached a shared understanding of the objectives and priorities they 3 Qq …
Government Response Summary
The government states that the National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) and National Resilience Planning Assumptions (NRPAs) are shared with departments to ensure a shared understanding of risks and response requirements, and that departments are responsible for managing resilience risks.
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9 Conclusion Accepted
The National Security Risk Assessment, which sets out government’s assessment of the main risks facing the UK and its interests overseas, is classified. Government has published a summary of this assessment and of the mitigations it has put in place every two or three years since 2008.11 The last edition …
Government Response Summary
The government will build on the National Risk Register to better communicate risk to the public through enhanced Parliamentary reporting/debate and improved public access to risk information, as part of the forthcoming Resilience Strategy.
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17 Conclusion Accepted
While government took action following major pandemic simulation exercises such as Cygnus and Winter Willow, it did not act upon some of the warnings about the UK’s lack of preparedness from these simulations. For instance, at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many departmental business continuity plans lacked detailed arrangements …
Government Response Summary
The government states that there are existing structures, platforms, and processes to capture and share lessons identified from exercises and operations, notably, the Joint Organisational Learning (JOL) system.
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19 Conclusion Accepted
We have repeatedly highlighted longstanding issues with the quality of data held by government and with its ability to use data effectively to support policy interventions. Our 2019 report Challenges in using data across government noted the lack of government-wide data standards, ageing IT systems, fragmented leadership and a civil …
Government Response Summary
The government agreed with the Committee's recommendation and plans to set out its assessment of the areas in which the data collected by the National Situation Centre are in greatest need of improvement and what it plans to do to implement those improvements. The government should set out how it plans to retain access to the social care data required to respond to future pandemics.
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20 Conclusion Accepted
Insufficient progress made on data issues over the years has hindered government’s initial pandemic response. For instance, local government initially lacked access to information from NHS Test and Trace that they needed to deliver their local pandemic response.34 A submission from the International Longevity Centre UK noted that, despite successive …
Government Response Summary
The government states that the National Situation Centre (SitCen) will use the National Strategic Risk Assessment (NSRA) framework for prioritizing data and that access to social care data collected to monitor COVID-19 will continue as long as these data collections remain in place, with SitCen gaining access to relevant monitoring data if needed in the future.
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21 Conclusion Accepted
The Cabinet Office noted that, in 2021, government set up a National Situation Centre which will provide real-time access to data government needs to respond to the emergencies set out in the National Security Risk Assessment. The Cabinet Office hopes that this will significantly enhance emergency response as it will …
Government Response Summary
The government states that the National Situation Centre (SitCen) will use the National Strategic Risk Assessment (NSRA) framework for prioritizing data and that access to social care data collected to monitor COVID-19 will continue as long as these data collections remain in place, with SitCen gaining access to relevant monitoring data if needed in the future.
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22 Conclusion Accepted
The Department stated that, while government’s access to data from the social care system has greatly improved during the pandemic, it is likely that this access will be somewhat scaled down as the emergency subsides. It told us that this is because providing 31 Qq 12–27 32 Q 24; letter …
Government Response Summary
The government states that the National Situation Centre (SitCen) will use the National Strategic Risk Assessment (NSRA) framework for prioritizing data and that access to social care data collected to monitor COVID-19 will continue as long as these data collections remain in place, with SitCen gaining access to relevant monitoring data if needed in the future.
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