Trade and Industry in the Civil Emergency Strategy
The UK-wide whole-system civil emergency strategy, which the Inquiry has recommended should be developed by the UK government and devolved administrations (see the Inquiry’s Module 1 Report, Recommendation 4), should include specific objectives for international trade and domestic industry during a pandemic.
These must include:
the establishment of trading alliances in advance of the next pandemic, to diversify overseas sources of raw materials and healthcare equipment;
contractual arrangements with domestic and international suppliers of raw materials and healthcare equipment manufacturers which activate when a pandemic is declared;
a robust plan to enable domestic manufacturers rapidly to retool and repurpose facilities for the production of healthcare equipment; and
supporting investment for research and development into advanced manufacturing of healthcare equipment in the UK.
- The Module 5 report was published on 14 July 2026 and contains 11 recommendations (UK Covid-19 Inquiry, Module 5: Procurement).
- Searches of GOV.UK and Inquiry publications found no government response or recommendation-specific implementation update as at 23 July 2026.
How was this evidence gathered?
Response
No Published Response
Response
No Published ResponseNo formal response published by this government.
No formal response published by this government.
No formal response published by this government.
Progress Timeline
Status: Pending. No government response yet received. Module 5 report published 14 July 2026.