No formal response published by this government.

No formal response published by this government.

The government agrees that regularly programmed exercises should test pandemic preparedness. A ministerial, national level (Tier 1) exercise has been programmed for 2025 to test the response to a major pandemic. In addition, smaller scale exercises, including testing the pandemic response and other catastrophic risks, will be tested across government through the National Exercising Programme and existing departmental exercising programmes. It is important to balance the regularity of testing pandemic preparedness against the need to conduct Tier 1 exercises on other whole-system risks.

The Cabinet Office is responsible for the delivery of the National Exercise Programme (NEP), which covers a range of whole-system risks, with the priority areas for testing informed by cross-cutting and systemic vulnerabilities and capability gaps. The NEP sets out a timetable of annual Tier 1 exercises (2024-2028), requiring a central response and cross-government coordination. Tier 1 exercises are large-scale national exercises involving devolved governments and regional/local tier responders, as well as relevant industry engagement such as key businesses, voluntary and community organisations. Government departments fully participate at senior official or ministerial level.

In 2025, the Department of Health and Social Care will lead on the Tier 1 exercise testing the response to a major pandemic. The aim is to “assess significant elements of the UK’s preparedness, capabilities, and response arrangements in the context of a pandemic arising from a novel infectious disease”. UKHSA is leading on planning for the exercise and stakeholder engagement is underway. This complements the commitments within the 2023 UK Biological Security Strategy, to the “regular domestic and international exercising of our collective preparedness and defences to biological threats”.

The Cabinet Office has provided additional support to those involved in exercising across the system, publishing Exercising Best Practice Guidance on gov.uk, which was developed in consultation with departments, local resilience leads and resilience experts. This helps government departments, devolved governments, public sector organisations and others to plan for, resource and deliver exercises, from small scale table top exercises to large scale national exercises.

The guidance recommends that exercise planners consider and embed exercise objectives that explore the impact on vulnerable groups including those who could be disproportionately impacted. A bespoke toolkit (Exercise in a Box) has been designed and shared with Local Resilience Forums to enable them to consider the challenges and demands of identifying and supporting vulnerable persons during significant disruptive events, as part of their exercise programme.

The government recognises that there is still further work required to ensure that the impact of inequalities and vulnerabilities within pandemic decision making is fully explored. Lessons Management Best Practice Guidance (published in 2024 on gov.uk) advocates for a participatory approach to emergency management which considers the impacts of emergencies on individuals and builds community resilience. Further detail can be found in Recommendation 7.

[IN PROGRESS] Exercise PEGASUS scheduled September-November 2025 involving all four nations. National Exercising Programme established with annual Tier 1 exercises planned 2026-2030.