Recommendation 10

The Cabinet Office has a key role in ensuring government is ready to respond to unexpected and unprecedented events. It is responsible for coordinating civil contingencies response to unexpected events, conducting COBRA meetings, working with local resilience forums and with devolved administrations.24 The Cabinet Office also keeps a national risk register which includes “unexpected events” in terms of those that are irregular but known to occur, such as weather events. It also includes those which may not have occurred before but which there may be a chance of occurring. Examples of these sorts of events have included the Iraq war and the global financial crisis.25 Planning for risks on the risk register is managed with input from across government. In particular, the Treasury also works to formulate and assess the plans in the risk register.26