Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 3
3
Accepted
Government’s failure to communicate the reasons for frequent changes to health measures made it hard...
Recommendation
Government’s failure to communicate the reasons for frequent changes to health measures made it hard for the public to understand and adhere to them. Ministers changed the rules that people had to follow under the traffic light system at least 10 times between February 2021 and January 2022. It is, therefore, unsurprising that some 40% of people did not understand the self-isolation requirements after travel. Government did not publish information about how it had assessed the risk of travelling to different countries, making it difficult for people to plan or to pre-empt what changes might be made. While some complexity was inevitable, we consider that frequent changes to the rules every three weeks threatened to undermine compliance. Government allowed an estimated 2.5 million people exemptions from parts of the health measures, but the Department for Transport has no data on how many people with exemptions tested positive for COVID-19. Nor did it set out the reasons for exemptions for those attending Euro 2020 and London Fashion Week. There is a risk that people’s willingness to comply with rules is undermined if different rules appear to apply to different groups. Despite the Home Office and DHSC spending over £100 million on contracts for home visits to check compliance, approximately one-third of people may not have complied with requirements to isolate at home, and only 0.32% of all home visits were referred to the police. Recommendation: The Cabinet Office should set out, as part of its report capturing lessons learned, what it has learned about communicating with the public effectively and what it will do differently in the future.
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and notes key lessons learned on communicating with the public through cross-channel campaigns, including the need for agile approaches, research and feedback sessions, simple language, mutually supported communications, strategic communications, volume, clarity, timeliness, paid-for media, and communication through local, regional and national partners.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 3.2 Communication was a critical lever for the government’s COVID-19 response. The cross-cutting national and international Public Information Campaign endeavoured to ensure that the public understood and followed the latest guidance, including border health measures in the UK and overseas. Key lessons learned for the future on communicating with the public through cross-channel campaigns include: • The evolving scientific understanding of the virus and how it spread required an agile approach to the public information campaign. • All communications were created through research and feedback sessions with the general public and key stakeholders such as local authorities, Directors of Public Health, local MPs and the transport sector. • Simple language rhyming mnemonics (‘Hands, Face, Space’) were used to group behaviours into core ideas to achieve greater impact. • Communications are significantly more effective in changing behaviours when mutually supported by policy advice and regulation. • A strategic communications and centralised insight programme can deliver regular reporting which avoids duplication, provides a single source of the truth, and valuable insight for policy-making. • Volume, clarity and timeliness of communications are essential considerations. Clear, simple and actionable messaging backed with evidence can boost public understanding and should be communicated across channels, including accessible formats. • Paid-for media can give an issue prominence and prime audiences en-masse or in a more targeted way. Creativity in messaging and media planning is crucial in achieving cut- through, particularly when there is audience fatigue. • Communicating through local, regional and national partners, including the private sector (e.g. transport operators), provides credibility, authenticity and relevance to audiences.