Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 29
29
Acknowledged
We found in our report on Government preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons for government...
Conclusion
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
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee and states that lessons learned continue to inform contingency planning across government, including for future public health threats. They retained COVID-19 surveillance and set out an overarching contingency strategy based on pharmaceutical interventions.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
1.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 29 Recommendation implemented 1.2 Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, departments considered the efficacy of policies implemented, and those lessons learned continue to inform contingency planning and are considered across government, including looking ahead to future public health threats. 1.3 The government retained COVID-19 surveillance such as the Office for National Statistics survey, REACT and Vivaldi to enable early-warning mechanisms and be able to react quickly to potential future Variants of Concern (VoC). The overarching contingency strategy was set out to the House of Commons in March 2022, with the core of the strategy being the use of pharmaceutical interventions such as vaccines, rather than reintroducing restrictions. 1.4 Given the response to any VoC will be informed by the prevailing epidemiological conditions of the day, its intrinsic severity and the impact of pharmaceutical interventions, it is not possible to set out specific plans, but the Living with COVID-19 strategy set out the parameters of an initial response. Governance plans have also been developed with the UK Health Security Agency leading on health security threats such as COVID-19 alongside the Department of Health and Social Care, and the Cabinet Office supporting upstream planning through its resilience functions. In addition to COVID-19 preparations, the government is also due to publish an updated Biological Security Strategy later in 2022 and is developing a wider range of scenarios for future pandemic planning if needed, including respiratory (influenza and non-influenza), contact and vector-borne scenarios.