Public Inquiry Recommendations

COVID-M1.1 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2024)

Simplify Emergency Preparedness Structures

The governments of the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should each simplify and reduce the number of structures with responsibility for preparing for and building resilience to whole-system civil …

COVID-M1.3 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2024)

Improved Risk Assessment Approach

The UK government and devolved administrations should work together on developing a new approach to risk assessment that moves away from a reliance on single reasonable worst-case scenarios towards an …

COVID-M1.5 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2024)

Pandemic Data Systems and Research

The UK government, working with the devolved administrations, should establish mechanisms for the timely collection, analysis, secure sharing and use of reliable data for informing emergency responses, in advance of …

COVID-M1.6 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2024)

Triennial Pandemic Exercises

The UK government and devolved administrations should together hold a UK-wide pandemic response exercise at least every three years. The exercise should: test the UK-wide, cross-government, national and local response …

COVID-M1.7 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2024)

Publish Exercise Reports and Lessons

For all civil emergency exercises, the governments of the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should each (unless there are reasons of national security for not doing so): publish an …

COVID-M1.9 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2024)

External Red Teams for Resilience

The governments of the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should each introduce the use of red teams in the Civil Service to scrutinise and challenge the principles, evidence, policies …

COVID-M2.2 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2025)

Devolved Nations SAGE Attendance

The Government Office for Science (GO-Science) should invite the governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to nominate a small number of representatives to attend meetings of the Scientific Advisory …

COVID-M2.3 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2025)

UK-wide Expert Register

The Government Office for Science (GO-Science) should develop and maintain a register of experts across the four nations of the UK who would be willing to participate in scientific advisory …

COVID-M2.4 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2025)

Publish Technical Advice During Emergencies

During a whole-system civil emergency, the UK government and devolved administrations should each routinely publish technical advice on scientific, economic and social matters at the earliest opportunity, as well as …

COVID-M2.5 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2025)

Advisory Group Terms of Appointment

The Government Office for Science (GO-Science), the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Department of Health (Northern Ireland) should each develop standard terms of appointment for all participants in …

COVID-M2.6 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2025)

Enact Socio-economic Duty

The UK government should bring into force in England section 1 of the Equality Act 2010, implementing the socio-economic duty. The Northern Ireland Assembly and Northern Ireland Executive should consider …

COVID-M2.8 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2025)

Vulnerable People Framework

The UK government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive should each agree a framework that identifies people who would be most at risk of becoming infected by and …

COVID-M2.10 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2025)

Pandemic Decision-Making Framework

The UK government and devolved administrations should set out in future pandemic preparedness strategies (see the Inquiry’s Module 1 Report, Recommendation 4) how decision-making will work in a future pandemic. …

COVID-M2.11 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2025)

Leadership Succession Arrangements

The UK government and devolved administrations should each establish formal arrangements for covering the roles of Prime Minister and First Minister (and in Northern Ireland, deputy First Minister) as applicable …

COVID-M2.12 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2025)

Central Emergency Taskforces

The response to a future whole-system civil emergency should be coordinated via central taskforces in each of the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with responsibility for the commissioning and …

COVID-M2.14 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2025)

Accessible Emergency Communications

The UK government and devolved administrations should each develop action plans for how government communications will be made more accessible during a pandemic. As a minimum, these should include making …

COVID-M2.16 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2025)

Civil Contingencies Act Review

The UK government should undertake a review of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 to assess its potential role in managing future civil emergencies, including pandemics, and whether it could be …

COVID-M2.18 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2025)

Devolved Nations COBR Attendance

The UK government should invite the devolved administrations, as a matter of standard practice, to nominate relevant ministers and officials to attend COBR meetings in the event of relevant whole-system …

COVID-M2.19 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2025)

Four Nations Pandemic Structure

While intergovernmental relations should be facilitated through COBR in the initial months of any future pandemic, the UK government and devolved administrations should ensure that a specific four-nations structure, concerning …

COVID-M3.1 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2026)

IPC Structures and Transmission Risk

The UK government must ensure that there is a body (equivalent to the UK Infection Prevention and Control Cell) in place ready to be convened at the outset of any …

COVID-M3.2 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2026)

Visiting Restrictions Guidance

The UK government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive should publish guidance for the implementation of visiting restrictions in hospitals in the event of a future pandemic. The …

COVID-M3.3 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2026)

Fit-Testing Preparedness

The UK government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive should work with employers, including health boards and trusts, to review the availability of qualified fit testers and take …

COVID-M3.4 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2026)

Data Systems for High-Risk Individuals

The UK government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive must ensure that health data and digital systems have the capability to identify individuals at high risk of morbidity …

COVID-M3.8 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2026)

Recording Healthcare Worker Deaths

The UK government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive should work with their respective public health agencies and healthcare employers to develop nation-specific mechanisms to collect, analyse and …

COVID-M4.3 Accepted

COVID-19 Inquiry (2026)

Improve Vaccine Uptake Monitoring and Evaluation

Each of the four UK public health or health security agencies should work together to: maintain accurate, UK-wide insight into the state of vaccine uptake and hesitancy; and understand the …