Trade and Industry in the Civil Emergency Strategy
COVID-19 Inquiry · Module 5: Procurement · Issued 14 July 2026 · Addressed to: Cabinet Office
Government responseWelsh Government: No response yet (Sep 2026)Scottish Government: No response yet (Sep 2026)Northern Ireland Executive: No response yet (Sep 2026)
DeliveryNo statement from Cabinet Office found
Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation
The UK-wide whole-system civil emergency strategy, which the Inquiry has recommended should be developed by the UK government and devolved administrations (see the Inquiry’s Module 1 Report, Recommendation 4), should include specific objectives for international trade and domestic industry during a pandemic.
These must include:
the establishment of trading alliances in advance of the next pandemic, to diversify overseas sources of raw materials and healthcare equipment;
contractual arrangements with domestic and international suppliers of raw materials and healthcare equipment manufacturers which activate when a pandemic is declared;
a robust plan to enable domestic manufacturers rapidly to retool and repurpose facilities for the production of healthcare equipment; and
supporting investment for research and development into advanced manufacturing of healthcare equipment in the UK.
COVID-19 Inquiry, Module 5: Procurement · 14 Jul 2026 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
AI-generated evidence summary
The Inquiry asked the Cabinet Office to incorporate trade and industry objectives into civil emergency planning. When the Executive Office's publications list was checked in September 2026, a response to the July 2026 Module 5 report from the Northern Ireland Executive remained unpublished (Northern Ireland Executive response, Sep 2026). When the Scottish Government's online collection of inquiry responses was checked in September 2026, its response to the report also remained unpublished (Scottish Government response, Sep 2026). When the Welsh Government's page of inquiry module responses was checked in September 2026, its response likewise remained unpublished (Welsh Government response, Sep 2026). The record holds nothing dated later than the response of September 2026 (Welsh Government response, Sep 2026).
Sources
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 2 Oct 2026.
Government response
●Welsh Government · No response yet · 25 Sep 2026
No formal government response published. The Welsh Government had not published a response to the Module 5 report of 14 July 2026 when its page of responses to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry module reports on GOV.WALES was checked on 25 September 2026.
●Scottish Government · No response yet · 25 Sep 2026
No formal government response published. The Scottish Government had not published a response to the Module 5 report of 14 July 2026 when its collection of responses to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry on gov.scot was checked on 25 September 2026.
●Northern Ireland Executive · No response yet · 25 Sep 2026
No formal government response published. The Northern Ireland Executive had not published a response to the Module 5 report of 14 July 2026 when the Executive Office's publications list was checked on 25 September 2026.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from Cabinet Office has been found in the sources searched. This is separate from the response above.
How this page is built
The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.