Recommendation 29

We found in our report on Government preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons for government on risk that government would have been better prepared for COVID-19 if it had applied learning from previous incidents and exercises.52 The NAO reported that, following the removal of travel restrictions in March 2022, government had an opportunity to stand back and put its overall system for implementing travel measures on a more sustainable footing.53 We asked if the Cabinet Office was developing toolkits for responding to future situations, noting that this was particularly important given the ongoing threat of other diseases, such as monkeypox, and the possibility of new COVID-19 variants emerging. The Cabinet Office told us that each Department, and the COVID-19 taskforce, was following good practice by writing up its conclusions and lessons learned, and that this was partly to ensure they were ready for the public inquiry.54 The Cabinet Office also told us that it was undertaking scenario planning for possible future crisis scenarios through the Civil Contingencies Secretariat. It recognised that many of the COVID-19 taskforce had now moved on to other roles, leaving residual capacity.55