Recommendation 3

The UK’s critical national infrastructure (CNI) is fundamental to the smooth running of the economy and of society. It is becoming increasingly interconnected, and all CNI sectors are heavily reliant on a stable energy supply. The Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated how rapidly the impact of a hazard can spread—or cascade—from one part of society to another. The same is true of the effects of climate change, as extreme weather events in the past year have shown. Yet we have found very little join-up between CNI sectors, with no formal mechanism for collaboration or information-sharing on interdependencies. This has resulted in some worrying near misses and an apparent lack of planning and foresight.