Recommendation 12

Our previous work on Covid-19 has highlighted the gaps in economic planning for pandemics, even though the risk of a pandemic was one of the most likely risks government had identified. In July 2020, we recommended that the Cabinet Office should review its contingency planning for the most serious risks and ensure that these consider whole-of-government impacts, including economic modelling, and we will monitor how government responds to the issue.31 22 Q 44 23 Q 38 24 Q 4; C&AG’s Report, Contingency preparations for exiting the EU with no deal, Session 2017–19, HC 2058, 12 March 2019, pages 10–12 25 Q 6 26 Qq 8–9 27 Q 15; C&AG’s Report, para 11 28 Qq 15–16 29 Q 43 30 Q 17 31 Q5; Whole of Government Response to COVID-19, Thirteenth Report of Session 2019–21, HC 404 dated 16 July 2020 and Published on 23 July 2020 12 Whitehall preparations for EU Exit The government has announced that there will be a review of its response to Covid-19, which the Cabinet Office expects will provide some lessons for the future in terms of how the pandemic has affected different parts of the economy and different parts of the country.32 However the review has not yet progressed beyond the scoping stage. The Cabinet Office informed us that so far only initial discussions have been held and no date has been set.33 Financial Management