UK COVID-19 Inquiry

The UK government should, in consultation with the devolved administrations, create a statutory independent body for whole-system civil emergency preparedness and resilience. The new body should be given responsibility for: providing independent, strategic advice to the UK government and devolved administrations on their planning for, preparedness for and building resilience to whole-system civil emergencies; consulting with the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector at a national and local level and directors of public health on the protection of vulnerable people in whole-system civil emergencies; assessing the state of planning for, preparedness for and resilience to whole-system civil emergencies across the UK; and making recommendations on the capacity and capabilities that will be required to prepare for and build resilience to whole-system civil emergencies. As an interim measure, the new body should be established on a non-statutory basis within 12 months of this Report, so that it may begin its work in advance of legislation being passed.

The Inquiry recommended creating an independent statutory resilience body for civil emergencies. In April 2026, Dan Jarvis, for the Cabinet Office, stated that convening independent panels to scrutinise whole-system risks forms the government's response, though the Minister did not mention creating a statutory body (Dan Jarvis, Apr 2026). In March 2026, the National Preparedness Commission stated that the recommendation had been rejected and questioned whether ad hoc panels would adequately substitute for an independent scrutinising body (House of Lords National Resilience Committee, Mar 2026; House of Lords National Resilience Committee, Mar 2026). The department had previously stated in July 2025 that a statutory body was not necessary because it could not outsource responsibility for response plans (Cabinet Office, Jul 2025; Cabinet Office, Jul 2025).

The Northern Ireland Executive and UK government (in consultation with the Irish government where necessary) should review the structures and delegated powers of government in Northern Ireland to consider: the empowerment of the First Minister and deputy First Minister jointly to direct the work of other ministers and departments during an emergency; the empowerment of the Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service in relation to the allocation of civil servants to departments or to civil contingency structures during an emergency; and how decisions that would usually be subject to ministerial approval would be taken should an emergency occur during the suspension of power-sharing arrangements.

The Northern Ireland Executive stated in March 2026 that the recommendation remained under consideration, explaining that it was working to enhance civil service redeployment powers while engaging with an Assembly committee on ministerial emergency powers (Northern Ireland Executive response, Mar 2026). The UK Government (Cabinet Office) stated in March 2026 that local parties should consider any institutional changes, though it stood ready to discuss proposals and consult the Irish government (Cabinet Office response, Mar 2026). The record holds no update since the UK Government (Cabinet Office)'s response of March 2026 (Cabinet Office response, Mar 2026).

The UK government and devolved administrations should publish a UK-wide framework setting out ethical and operational principles to guide the allocation of adult intensive care resources in the extreme event that they are saturated during a pandemic. That framework must: be informed by comprehensive engagement with the public and developed in conjunction with professionals across healthcare, law and ethics, as well as with regulators of healthcare professionals; set out clearly established triggers for its use, based at least in part on a UK-wide system that measures critical care capacity strain and facilitates mutual aid (such as the CRITCON tool used in England); establish clinicians' legal and professional duties in applying the framework, which should be clearly explained to clinicians through guidance; and be regularly reviewed with reference to contemporary patient data during a pandemic, and any future use of it must be evaluated and reported on publicly. A plan and timeline for completing this work should be published within six months of this Report. Application of the framework should be tested as part of the pandemic response exercises recommended in the Inquiry's Module 1 Report (Recommendation 6).

The Department of Health and Social Care stated in September 2026 that it will explore developing principles to guide adult intensive care allocation during pandemic saturation, but noted that formulating a plan and timeline will take longer than six months (Department of Health and Social Care and Cabinet Office response, Sep 2026). That month, the Scottish Government accepted the recommendation in principle and confirmed work with the other nations, while health advisers and ministers in Wales likewise committed to developing a UK-wide framework (Scottish Government response, Sep 2026; Welsh Government response, Sep 2026). The department stated it will provide an update in May 2027 through the inquiry implementation dashboard, and the record holds no update since the Welsh Government's response of September 2026 (Department of Health and Social Care and Cabinet Office response, Sep 2026; Welsh Government response, Sep 2026).