Recommendation 14

In our report Government preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons for government on risk management, we concluded that the pandemic has exposed limitations in how government manages risks, especially those that cut across institutional boundaries. We said government needs to learn lessons on leadership and oversight for whole- system risks, in line with the principles of the Orange Book, which sets out mandatory requirements and guidance on risk management.24 The Cabinet Office told us that health measures were not implemented as a single cross-government programme but as seven different programmes: providing public health advice, checks by Border Force officers at the border, testing, working with the travel industry, the exemptions policy, FCDO travel advice, and the DHSC’s MQS, rather than a single cross-government programme.25