Pandemic Data Systems and Research

3.17 In Wales a range of work on developing access to reliable data for civil emergencies including pandemics is in progress. This includes improving how data is collected, analysed and shared in response to both operational and pandemic emergencies. There is still work to be completed given the complexity and capacity for change especially on digital systems that can manage data at scale and share securely across public sector organisations. The Welsh Government is actively working on this across key systems. Further work and engagement is also needed at a UK Government level to actively engage with the digital, data and analytical community in devolved governments on their plans for improving cross-UK interoperability.

3.18 A key learning from the pandemic was the importance of data or surveillance to understand the epidemiology of pathogens, deliver intervention measures and consider impact especially on the most vulnerable in our communities. Welsh Government has provided continuous funding to Public Health Wales to improve virological surveillance for acute respiratory illness including implementation of sentinel pharmacy surveillance to support more reliable surveillance data and insights. We are also developing a ‘One Health’ approach to surveillance to aid our preparedness for other routes of transmission. This includes continued investigation into wastewater surveillance. A recently established surveillance stakeholder panel within Public Health Wales, with representation from health boards, local authorities, and the Welsh Government, will help direct future surveillance capability for preparedness planning.

3.19 Further work has been done to improve the recording, quality and dissemination of data in our health system in a timely way that also supports preparedness.

• A new Welsh Emergency Care Dataset has been developed to better capture the demands on urgent care centres in Wales that supports civil and pandemic emergencies response. The new dataset is currently being implemented across Wales following the issue of new data standards in August 2024.

• Public Health Wales led a detailed exercise to identify the user needs for health protection across Wales concerning the replacement of the TARIAN and Customer Relationship Management health protection platforms. This work has engaged system and international partners in addition to citizens. The Digital Health Protection Programme aims to establish an internationally recognised, high quality and resilient service that will ensure data is collected, analysed and shared during times of stability and emergency in an effective and timely way –including the capacity to scale up contact tracing arrangements. This new service will provide the mechanisms to share health protection data with other agencies. The programme is currently at an alpha phase.

• The Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank, hosted by Swansea University, provides infrastructure to enable the linking of datasets, securely and anonymously, from across NHS Wales and other sources. SAIL allowed Welsh Government, the NHS and researchers to quickly use data to understand the impact of the pandemic on the Welsh population. Welsh Government continues to part fund SAIL through Health and Care Research Wales and alongside the Administrative Data Research – Wales partnership will continue to increase its access to different administrative datasets and builds it capability to help government understand its population when preparing for, and responding to, pandemic emergencies.

• A significant programme of work is being undertaken to transition the Welsh Immunisation System, which was developed during the Covid-19 pandemic, into a core system to support current and new vaccination programmes. This will result in more accurate, detailed and timely vaccination data in Wales.

• Public Health Wales is currently piloting the National Data and Analysis Platform, an element of the National Data Resource Programme led by Digital Health and Care Wales. This will significantly increase Wales’ capacity to store and analyse large volumes of data and to access data held by Digital Health and Care Wales and the health boards through the Care Data Repository. It is anticipated that core datasets and analysis on the National Data and Analysis Platform will be live by spring 2026.

• As part of wider work to enhance digital collaboration between Welsh Government and public bodies, the Welsh Government has improved our ability to provide officials with direct access to NHS dashboards both routinely and in the event of an emergency. This had been identified as a barrier to information sharing during the Covid-19 pandemic.

3.20 As a result of the pandemic, in 2022 the Welsh Government established Equality, Race and Disability Evidence Units following reports on disparities in outcomes for different ethnic groups and disabled people from Covid-19. These specialist units provide capacity for a greater focus on equality in data, research and analysis. A number of improvements to data collection and analysis have been implemented across the NHS and government in response, for example development of the Workforce Race Equality Standard for Health and Social Care, recording of ethnicity on death records and ability to link census data to other records for analysis.

3.21 In terms of analysing data, Welsh Government has continued to improve its capacity to respond to pandemics. The Technical Advisory Cell, established during the Covid-19 pandemic, has been transitioned to a permanent division within the Health, Social Care and Early Years Group. The Wales Policy Modelling Group has been established to better co-ordinate modelling resources from across the NHS in Wales and within academia, and to create and maintain strong relationships with partners which would be vital in responding to a possible future pandemic. A plan on how to deliver long term resilience for communicable disease modelling in a Welsh context is currently being developed along with an active programme to increase in-house capability.

3.22 The Welsh Government will be working closely with stakeholders to capture more detail about the barriers towards timely and effective data sharing, both locally and nationally, with regard to pandemic emergencies. We recognise the importance of two-way data and intelligence sharing with other devolved governments, UK Government and local government and further work is needed in this space. We attend and contribute to Scientific Pandemic Influenza – Modelling and Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies meetings however, greater clarification on membership and the roles of different attendees from Welsh Government would help provided greater clarification. It is critical to agree rules of engagement around access to evidence and intelligence considered by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies across the UK at the outset of a pandemic or any other emergency, to minimise the risk of information sharing barriers due to lack of clarity on roles or security credentials.

3.23 The Welsh Government is establishing a data and evidence team within National Security and Resilience who will embed the use of data in future crisis responses, including any future pandemics. This includes mapping data and evidence requirements against risks in order to establish data pipelines well in advance of an emergency. Responsibilities will also include arrangements for surge capacity for analysts in the event of a civil or pandemic emergency.

3.24 The UK Cabinet Office’s National Situation Centre has sought to establish an approach, mechanism and scope for high-level data sharing between the UK Government and devolved governments to improve rapid situational awareness during crisis preparedness and response, thereby improving resilience and crisis outcomes. The National Situation Centre has also created a Crisis Data Liaison Officer network to find data pathways, which consists of representatives from each central government department and the devolved nations to facilitate this. The data and evidence team referred to above will develop the relationship further with the National Situation Centre and the Crisis Data Liaison Officer network to ensure an effective and well-coordinated two-way flow of data between governments.

3.25 Despite the positive progress made by UK Government and the devolved governments during the pandemic in rapidly developing data sharing agreements and more recently through the National Situation Centre, further progress is needed to achieve a system that is equitable for all nations and shares the right data to be able to make rapid decisions in a pandemic emergency. We would welcome continued consideration of the potential for the Digital Economy Act and other legislation to ensure there is a clear legal framework for sharing data across the UK and with other public bodies to support both preparedness and response.

3.26 When solutions or changes to data sharing, analysis or visualisation are developed at pace by UK Government without due consideration and engagement with devolved governments this can cause challenges in adoption. Access to dashboards and analysed data across the UK continues to be complex, as different nations and government departments operate separate computer systems and have individual responsibilities in data protection legislation and differing risk appetites. We would welcome more active engagement through our digital, data, technology and analytical communities at a UK level to ensure any differences and understanding is understood, so that solutions developed work at all levels.

3.27 The UK Government should also commission a wider range of research projects ready to commence in the event of a future pandemic.

3.28 The work undertaken during the Covid-19 pandemic, where the Welsh Government worked with the National Institute of Health Research and UK Research and Innovation to support UK-wide funding programmes has been built upon through the UK Government establishment of a pandemic preparedness research framework.

3.29 The framework looks to ensure research infrastructure and capacity is in place to better respond to the evidence needs during a pandemic emergency. Welsh Government is a member of the Pandemic Preparedness Research Group, which oversees the processes and commissioning through the framework.

3.30 In Wales, Public Health Wales has established a behavioural science unit to develop expertise in communicable disease prevention and control intervention design, in addition to joining UK-wide pandemic research projects, e.g. SIREN (the SARS-CoV-2 immunity and reinfection evaluation study), vaccine development trials. Through the Chief Scientific Adviser for Wales and the social research profession, Welsh Government is also actively involved in the new cross-government Social and Behavioural Science for Emergencies group established by Sir Ian Diamond and Sir Patrick Vallance in 2022.

3.31 During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Welsh Government established the Wales Covid-19 Evidence Centre to undertake evidence synthesis and rapid primary research addressing issues of specific and urgent importance to policy and practice in Wales. An appraisal of the knowledge mobilisation processes of the Wales Covid-19 Evidence Centre, its broader impact and lessons learnt has been published. In response to its effectiveness, the centre has since been recommissioned as the Health and Care Research Wales Evidence Centre, with a broad health, social care and public health remit. This Evidence Centre capacity could be repurposed in times of future pandemics or national emergencies as required.

The Scottish Government accepts this recommendation and are fully committed to working closely with the UK Government and other devolved governments to ensure we have reliable data and research for future pandemics, both for Scotland and on a four nations basis.

The Scottish Government Cross Government Delivery Group on Future Pandemic Preparedness (as described above in relation to Recommendation One) will support the development of improved pandemic preparedness including work on data, research and modelling for future pandemics. As part of this, we will agree a framework setting out the processes for how analytical resource across the Scottish Government can be rapidly redeployed to respond to a future pandemic (supporting the timely collection, analysis, sharing and use of required data) by summer 2025. A pandemic is a health, economic and social crisis so we will include data and research on these domains for policy and operational purposes.

The Scottish Government data systems will be tested in pandemic exercises, collaborating with analytical teams across the Scottish Government, the UK Government and with key partners including Public Health Scotland. We will use findings from these exercises to assess and agree future improvements if needed.

The Scottish Government will continue to collaborate and support the UK Government led work in support of this recommendation, including involvement in the National Situation Centre which supports the coordination of data and analysis. We have appointed a data liaison officer for the Scottish Government to liaise with the Cabinet Office with a view to establishing ways of working on issues of data and analysis between the UK Government and devolved governments during a crisis, ensuring the availability of data and analysis for crisis preparedness and response across the four nations, and establishing the legal gateways that would be used if data was agreed to be shared between the UK Government and devolved governments, and vice versa.

As part of this, we are working with Cabinet Office and devolved governments to agree a Memorandum of Understanding. We commit to working with the UK Government to review and improve mechanisms for data sharing between the UK Government and devolved governments. We have positive working relationships with analytical counterparts across the UK Government and with other devolved governments, including representation on relevant four nations groups. Sharing data about Scotland with the Scottish Government and its agencies is key to helping us develop, deliver, and evaluate policies, including in emergency responses. This continues to be a high priority for the Chief Statistician.

The UK cross-government health and care research and development framework for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response covers all parts of the UK, providing mutual benefits to the UK Government and devolved governments, and enabling funding activation of sleeper protocols to commence research projects in the event of an emergency.

The Scottish Government has representatives on the UK Government Social and Behavioural Science for Emergencies (SBSE) Steering Group, led by the Government Office for Science, who are considering ‘hibernated’ research studies.

The Scottish Government also currently funds the National Centre for Resilience (NCR), a research and knowledge exchange hub hosted by the University of Glasgow, which brings together policy, resilience and academic practitioners to improve synergies between research and practice. The NCR utilises existing knowledge and commissions new projects to address real life issues faced by resilience practitioners and communities. It creates links for researchers to help them adapt their project outputs into tailored briefings and tools for end users.

We acknowledge there are benefits to be gained from better approaches to data management to help ensure timely data identification and sharing. We accept the Inquiry’s recommendation for stronger UK-wide collaboration on data collection, analysis, secure sharing, and utilisation to inform emergency responses, including pandemics.

The NI Hub was responsible for the supply of the majority of NI data to UK government during the Covid-19 pandemic. Whitehall specified the data sets they wished to report upon, and the NI Hub liaised with the appropriate NI departments to provide the information, where possible. There were instances when the requested data was not available at all or not in the exact format requested by Whitehall. The DoH in NI also provided information to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) through a range of routes to support planning and response.

We recognise that there were ongoing issues with information sharing in the early stages of the pandemic. For example, NI daily death and hospital data was out of sync with that of the UK as reporting times differed in NI (8am-8pm) and there was no provision of such NI data over the weekend. In addition, data on case numbers in health settings took time to filter through as NI was relying largely on paper-based records system.

TEO has expanded its Analytical Unit and embedded statisticians as civil contingencies business partners, integrating data analytics throughout emergency planning. A Data Liaison Network is now in place, chaired by TEO, linking departmental statisticians with emergency structures and aligning with the UK-wide Data Liaison Officer (DLO) network. Additional training and tools are also available through a data analysts’ training course and an interactive risk register to support evidence-based decisions.

Work continues on the Health Protection Surveillance Framework, aligning with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) MOSAIC framework, and enhancing surveillance systems and modelling in collaboration with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Ireland. A review is underway to ensure robust systems for early warnings of pandemic threats.

The appointment of a Chief Scientific and Technology Adviser (CSTA) in June 2024 strengthens leadership in science and technology in the NICS. The CSTA chairs the NI Science and Technology Advisory Network (NISTAN), coordinates research strategy, and represents NI in global scientific policymaking.

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) has made some progress towards meeting this recommendation, but there remains considerable work to be done to achieve the vision set out in this recommendation across the NICS.

Specific actions which we have taken include:

• Working with Office of National Statistics (ONS) and the wider statistical system, NISRA have developed and published a revised UK-wide methodology for calculating excess death statistics. These changes enable more accurate and timely analysis of short-run deviations in the number of deaths. NISRA has developed several linked data assets which combine information on individuals and businesses in NI, focussed on business performance and education records. These data assets will provide some building blocks for analysis in a future pandemic.

• NISRA has also developed a cross-departmental research strategy designed to provide a consistent approach to addressing important, cross-cutting research questions.

• NISRA has initiated discussions with NI and UK government departments to develop data sharing arrangements to enable our analytical work to be on a stronger footing.

However, there are a range of actions remaining which will need to be carried through to ensure a higher level of preparedness for a possible future pandemic. These include:

• Work to progress new legislation, which is required to create a new legal gateway for the sharing of health datasets. This was one of the central constraints in the Covid-19 pandemic and means that Northern Ireland is much less well placed than England, Wales and Scotland to produce the required analysis in the event of a future pandemic.

• Work to progress new data infrastructure and data sharing initiatives, which will provide a service able to respond to an emerging crisis with pace and agility. This will include the development of further linked data assets which enable day-to-day policy insights and provide a tool in response to an emergency.

• Further developments to our estimates of excess deaths are required in concert with other statistical bodies across the UK. Work is also needed to specify analytical outputs which could be ‘hibernated’ as described in the recommendation, in collaboration with the Cabinet Office.

• Dependent on resourcing, NISRA’s Survey Transformation Strategy proposes to move more of our surveys online, to strengthen our existing data collections and to stand up a new, flexible survey which could be used in event of a future pandemic to understand developments in the society and economy of NI.

The government agrees with the Inquiry that data and research are crucial to preparing for, responding to and recovering from a pandemic.

The government recognises that effective response to any future pandemic requires a refined and developed understanding of data, research, analysis, and other evidence required to underpin the response. At the beginning of the pandemic we lacked the systems, structures and processes needed to collect, analyse and distribute data quickly enough. These are now significantly improved, and robust epidemiological data will always be dependent on the availability and scale of appropriate surveillance and testing. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) including via NHS networks, are responsible for the collection, analysis and distribution of data related to infectious disease, as well as ensuring it is available, where legal frameworks allow, to support research projects. There are responsibilities across the government to plan, deliver and understand research commissioned between pandemics, to develop an ever deeper understanding of the evidence informing pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. The Cabinet Office is responsible for ensuring that ministers and senior decision makers have the right information – including data – to take key decisions through the COBR mechanism during an emergency response.

Situational awareness data for crisis response

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, surveillance, data collection and distribution were often manual and time-consuming. The process of identifying, collecting and reporting data to support a sustained national response took time, as did developing a dashboard, which was a cause of frustration among policy and decision makers. There was a lack of consistently comprehensive UK-wide data.

We have made significant progress on this. The National Situation Centre was established in 2021. It provides situational awareness for crisis response, bringing together data, analysis and critical expertise. It is already highly regarded internationally as a benchmark for the use of data in crisis, and represents a fundamental improvement since the pandemic - data now leads responses by default.

The establishment of the National Situation Centre means that we are better prepared to use anonymised and aggregated data to support strategic decision making on a range of national emergencies where that data is available. More than 700 such data sets have been mapped or ingested and, at short notice, we can produce analysis for over 85% of risks identified in the NSRA, and this coverage is ever expanding. Critical data sets, such as near real-time telephony data, cover the four nations. These capabilities are used regularly. It is vital to recognise that being prepared for a crisis requires us to take action before the crisis arises, which is why we have mapped or ingested this data ahead of time.

Dashboards – similar to those which took significant time to set up at the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020 – are now available on our Data, Analytics and Situational Awareness Hub. These collate information from government and non-government sources so that those working on a crisis have access to relevant and timely data related to that crisis and provide support to strategic decision making. They are hosted on a dedicated secure platform, built by the National Situation Centre, and are shared across government and with the devolved governments. This is supported by a dedicated crisis liaison officer responsible for ensuring the efficient and effective sharing of data between the devolved governments and the National Situation Centre.

However, in a future pandemic response, new sources of data such as specific targeted surveillance programmes as were established during COVID-19, would be needed to complement existing data streams and support decision making. Not all data which was used during the Covid-19 pandemic would be immediately available, and UKHSA and NHSE’s ability to increase data collection and surveillance will be dependent on the availability of diagnostics tools specific to the pathogen being available for use across the UK laboratory network, and appropriate data systems to share this information being in place. This is set out in more detail in the subsequent section.

Departments and bodies have gained valuable experience of working with providers of data and expertise outside of government. For example, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) continues to receive data from card payment providers for use in economic statistics. During the pandemic response, this data source was able to provide near real-time indicators of economic impacts. The Government Office for Science has set up an active continuous improvement programme for the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) which strengthens the government’s ability to identify and consult the best available experts across a more diverse range of scientific disciplines and better prepare them to support in an emergency. Under this programme, the Government Office for Science has worked with the National Situation Centre to develop ways of working that better connect scientific expertise with data, data analysis and data products during a crisis. Additionally, in 2022, The Government Office for Science established a new cross-government function, the Social and Behavioural Science for Emergencies Steering Group (SBSE), to strengthen coordination, identify cross-cutting social and behavioural evidence and data gaps for emergency preparedness and government capabilities and awareness.

Building on the lessons learned from visualising health data during Covid-19, the National Situation Centre is developing a new Biothreats Radar capable of scanning human, plant and animal health risks to create a powerful, near real-time view of emerging bio-threats and the impact they could have. The Radar will provide centralised data capability and actively monitor this information to provide decision makers with a comprehensive picture of known and developing biological threats. This sits alongside the UK Health Security Agency’s work to monitor new and emerging infectious diseases that could threaten the UK population. The Biological Security Strategy commits to scoping the development of integrated biosurveillance capabilities, to allow for more comprehensive monitoring of threats over time. Data and analysis, assured by experts, would flow into the National Situation Centre’s Biothreats Radar, providing decision makers with a comprehensive picture in crisis.

As noted above, the National Situation Centre has also developed a “digital NSRA” platform to interrogate the impacts of a risk, or a number of risks. It allows users to see the impacts which the materialisation of a risk may cause and immediately determine which of those impacts are compounded if multiple risks were to occur concurrently. If a new pandemic were to emerge, we would be able to consider complex, concurrent scenarios in minutes.

Further, supported by the ONS, the National Situation Centre has created a Risk Vulnerability Tool (RVT) to estimate the number of people who are vulnerable to the negative impacts of National Security Risk Assessment risks. It will be made available across government, including the devolved governments, through the aforementioned Data, Analytics and Situational Awareness Hub, supporting faster understanding of the scale and location of disproportionately impacted populations ahead of and during crises.

The National Situation Centre has been supported since early 2024 by a ‘Crisis Surge Team’, a pool of trained ONS analysts called upon to provide the Situation Centre with support during times of concurrent or enduring crises. This ensures skilled analysts can be deployed swiftly and efficiently to support matters of national importance. We recognise that the devolved governments are concerned about the demands of identifying, collecting and reporting data to the UK government. The National Situation Centre will continue to work with the devolved governments and local partners to strengthen and streamline systems, structure and processes for data sharing, both in preparation for and response to crises.

Overall, the ONS has been working closely with the devolved governments to improve data comparability and to ensure, as far as possible, that data is collected on a four-nations basis. The UK Concordat on Statistics, agreed in 2021, sets out the framework for co-operation in the production of statistics between the UK and devolved governments. Collection of new data during emergencies should, where possible, include the whole UK, allowing robust comparisons between different regions and areas. A model for this was the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey (CIS), rapidly set up by ONS and academic partners, to measure the prevalence and viral load, and identify, track and understand variants of SARS-CoV-2 across the UK, delivering breakdowns by age and region across all four nations. ONS has continued to work on household health surveys, having delivered the Winter CIS with UKHSA in 2023/24, and now the Health Insight Survey commissioned by NHS England. In England, Scotland and Wales, ONS runs the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, a monthly survey covering topics relating to people’s experience of daily life and events. This survey can be rapidly adapted to new topics as required, as happened during the pandemic.

The Cabinet Office also continues to provide the ResilienceDirect online service to enable collaboration and information sharing across multi-agency boundaries for the full cycle of emergency management: planning, exercising, response and recovery. The service already has nearly 67,000 active users from across the UK, Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories and continues to be used daily to protect and save lives.

Approach to Research, Development and Data for pandemic preparedness and response

Effective coordination of scientific research in advance of and in response to a future pandemic is essential to support in building the capacity and capability, and the scientific knowledge, in order to prepare and respond optimally to emerging infectious diseases and pandemics.

The UK government is commissioning a range of research projects ready to commence in the event of a future pandemic. These are primarily research infrastructure and studies that conduct research in the inter-pandemic period and are designed to be rapidly adapted to a new outbreak and includes hibernated protocols which can be rapidly triggered. The “UK Research and Development Framework for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response” was developed to facilitate effective collaboration between funders by determining research infrastructure needs, research priorities and appropriate funding routes to rapidly deliver research. UKHSA, along with the wider health system, identifies research needs and priorities for pandemic and epidemic preparedness, working with government funders and others to ensure that these are addressed under this new Framework. This was developed by all four nations with representation from all major UK government funders of research including UK Research and Innovation and the DHSC-funded National Institute for Health and Care Research. Research priorities are delivered through a coordinated toolkit of capabilities coupled with strengthened research infrastructure. This approach enables the advance funding and planning of a complementary suite of studies and identification of a collaborative network of researchers. It also gives us the ability to prevent and prepare effectively as well as adapt to changing priorities through pivoting pre-existing programmes.

Health equity considerations are essential to identifying evidence gaps on risks to vulnerable groups, and are therefore embedded in UKHSA Incident Research and Scientific Evaluation prioritisation criteria as well as the cross-government framework for pandemic preparedness research. UKHSA relies significantly on NHS pathology data for routine surveillance and is working to develop systems that can capture equity data characteristics routinely outside of pandemic periods. UKHSA is expanding the number of surveillance systems that can routinely report on social deprivation and ethnicity, and linking existing datasets as routine surveillance data do not always include these characteristics. Whilst not research, this supports UKHSA in the identification and prioritisation of research and development.

Understanding the effectiveness of different public health measures and how they affect specific groups is also vital. To support this, UKHSA has an ongoing programme of work to rigorously examine the evidence base relating to Public Health and Social Measures (PHSM), which are also a pillar of the cross-government framework. UKHSA’s work on PHSM aims to map the evidence of effectiveness and unintended consequences; generate evidence on PHSM across all routes of transmission; and translate evidence into public health advice that can be shared with external partners.

UKHSA has strengthened the ability to access health data through secure systems, and enabled sharing with international, national, local, and academic partners since the pandemic. The UKHSA data dashboard, a key part of the UK data landscape, puts public health data in the hands of stakeholders, policy makers and the public.

Besides this, aspects of the Covid-19 response have been integrated into core business functions of UKHSA, including a Pathogen Genomics Strategy and programme which will strengthen UKHSA’s ability to embed genomics data from other sources and manage this data in surveillance and incident response activities. UKHSA is also strengthening automated reporting of epidemiological information from private diagnostic laboratories and joining up data operations with UKHSA’s incident response structure.

UKHSA is delivering the Enterprise Data Analytics Platform, which allows staff to see real-time data on health security incidents to inform agile and scalable responses to these threats. UKHSA is also supporting national to local data sharing through the Data Sharing Framework with Upper Tier Local Authorities and the Local Authority Data Access Platform, enabling local partners secure access to sensitive health data to inform policy making and response.

DHSC and UKHSA continues to work closely with international partners to develop and deliver research priorities, which includes research to combat epidemics and outbreaks at source. For example, international research priorities are identified through: engagement via new international funders networks such as Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GLoPID-R); triggering rapid reviews of global research to identify gaps through the Pandemic Analytical Capacity and Funding Tracker (PACT); and responding to the priorities set out by the World Health Organization and local stakeholders.

Investment in key capabilities

The research and development improvements made to prepare for and respond to a pandemic must be underpinned by investment in key capabilities that will enable these efforts, such as data and laboratory infrastructure, and researcher capacity and capability, including across a range of Health Protection areas.

As well as funding research itself, DHSC invests significantly in research expertise and capacity, specialist facilities, support services and collaborations to support and deliver research in England. NIHR infrastructure funding supports the country’s leading experts to develop and deliver high-quality translational, clinical and applied research that is funded by the NIHR’s research programmes, other public funders of research, charities and the life sciences industry. Additional focus has been placed on pandemic preparedness across the NIHR infrastructure. For example, from Spring 2025, all NIHR Health Protection Research Units (HPRUs) – partnerships between the UK Health Security Agency and academia, covering infectious diseases, emergency preparedness or cross-cutting themes must have a research theme addressing pandemic preparedness. Additionally, funding will be awarded to one HPRU to be a hub that will coordinate and embed pandemic preparedness activities across all HPRUs to ensure they are complementary and responsive. HPRUs have and will continue to have a responsive mode to support UKHSA in addressing emerging research needs from emergencies and incidents, whilst ensuring that health equity is addressed within their research.

Quality critical infrastructure, including high containment laboratories, are a core capability to support research and are essential for the UK to identify, characterise and respond to dangerous infectious diseases (including epidemics and pandemics), and conduct crucial research into disease prevention, treatment and decontamination. These laboratories are a key element of the government’s Health Mission, essential to identifying, characterising, surveilling and monitoring the pathogens that cause animal, plant and human disease outbreaks. For example, the government is continuing to invest in The Science Capability in Animal Health programme which is redeveloping the UK’s main animal health science laboratories. High containment facilities are critical infrastructure for the UK, handling a wide range of threats to animals, plants and humans - several of which feature on the UK National Risk Register. They are essential for developing diagnostics and evaluating infectious disease countermeasures (such as therapeutics and vaccines). For example, during the 2022 Mpox outbreak, UKHSA used their high containment laboratory facilities to rapidly develop a test to detect Mpox-immunity in individuals who had contracted Mpox or received the smallpox vaccine.

On data, since 2022, DHSC has had the public commitment to adopt Secure Data Environments for the secondary uses of health data through the £175m Data for Research and Development programme. The NHS Research Secure Data Environment Network covers all of England and quickly provides privacy protecting access to a range of data against the full spectrum of research. By March 2025, there will be over 500 research studies in the SDE Network pipeline, including multi SDE projects, and industry studies.

This strengthened ability to share data through secure, interoperable platforms holds huge potential for future pandemic research, provided it can be accessed safely whilst maintaining public trust. It can help to support faster access to richer, UK-wide datasets for researchers in what will be the world’s largest linked health datasets. It will also give organisations greater control and oversight over their data as it remains within the secure space.

To facilitate fast research, by March 2025, the NHS DigiTrials Service, using digital tools to enhance the number of research volunteers, is anticipated to have enabled the recruitment of over one million participants into clinical research. This demonstrates its efficacy to support rapid trial recruitment when required. The plan is to develop fast, pandemic ready data streams for use during pandemics, including during pandemics.

Similar approaches to data access are being taken by Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and we are continuing to work to improve better system wide alignment and interoperability between health data platforms across the UK. Collectively these data infrastructure assets allow the UK to accelerate secure, publicly trusted health research agnostic of pandemics, but could be pivoted to more successfully support high-quality research and analysis at times of future crisis.

The Analytical Framework, which sets out how analytical resource will be deployed across the Scottish Government in the event of any future pandemic, was developed and tested during Exercise Pegasus and is now an operational working document. While lessons from the formal evaluation of Exercise Pegasus will inform refinement of the Framework, the Framework will also be kept under review through the Data and Analysis for Crisis Delivery Group. This will ensure it remains fit for purpose, reflects developments in analytical capability, and incorporates improvements in pandemic-relevant data and evidence.

Forming part of the Framework, a Memorandum of Understanding outlining mechanisms to enable rapid sharing of data and analysis across the four nations, in preparation for or during a future crisis, has been signed by the Cabinet Office and devolved governments following agreement by Scottish Government Ministers.

The Scottish Government wrote to the inquiry chair on 18 May 2026 to confirm that this recommendation has been delivered and closed.

Status: OPEN Introduction We remain committed to stronger UK-wide collaboration on data collection, analysis, secure sharing, and utilisation to inform emergency responses, including pandemics. Progress update The Department of Health is working to amend the Health and Social Care (Control of Data Processing) Act (NI) 2016 to establish a statutory process for sharing identifiable health and social care data without explicit consent in exceptional cases where privacy-protected alternatives are not feasible. This will operate within a broader governance framework, including ethical and information governance approvals. The legislative amendments are scheduled for 2025–2026. The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) is working to improve data sharing across Northern Ireland Executive departments. This includes a pilot infrastructure project, work to identify barriers to data sharing, and considering how current legislation could be used to share data more effectively. NISRA are working with colleagues in the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and across the UK Government more broadly, on sharing UK level data. NISRA have also recently strengthened engagement with the Irish Government’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) to consider how NISRA and CSO might deepen our cooperation on statistical matters.

The Welsh Government continues to make progress in enhancing its emergency preparedness and response capabilities related to data.

We have established a data, evidence and analytical team, which will integrate data into emergency planning and response activities. A memorandum of understanding has been signed with the UK’s National Situation Centre to ensure reciprocal data provision during crises, underscoring a firm commitment to data-driven decision-making in times of emergency. The role of data, evidence and analysis in an emergency response was tested during Exercise PEGASUS, with the new team providing a crucial coordinating role across the four UK administrations and with local resilience forums.

We have started work on a modelling strategy for health and social care in Wales. This will establish a sustainable and long-term arrangement for health and social care modelling in Wales which can respond to pandemic situations and other ad-hoc requests to support the Welsh Government’s Ministerial priorities. The modelling strategy for health and social care in Wales (Part 1) has been completed and provides an overview of the current modelling landscape in relation to health and social care in Wales. It includes examples of previous applications of modelling and summarises key themes emerging from stakeholder engagement with partners (such as Public Health Wales, NHS Wales organisations, academics and Social Care Wales). The modelling strategy for health and social care in Wales (Part 2) will be published in summer 2026. It will set out the technical detail of modelling, along with a plan for how modellers, organisations, and modelling groups can collaborate more effectively in the future.

Up to £2.29 million in 2025-2026 was awarded to Public Health Wales to transform the core health protection digital system so it could manage major incidents and mass contact tracing and improve sharing of data. A full business case for the digital health protection programme was submitted to the Welsh Government on 31 October and a supplier has been awarded the tender. Work is underway to commence the first phase of the programme which involves an initial build of the new system which is scheduled to complete in March 2026.

Progress continues to be made on the introduction of the Welsh Emergency Care Data Set, the new national standard for emergency care data collection in Wales to improve emergency care planning, performance monitoring, and patient outcomes across the Welsh NHS. The target for full adoption of the dataset remains in place, autumn 2026; however, there remains the risk that other operational pressures could delay the implementation beyond this date.

A table-top exercise undertaken in summer 2025 with key partners across the health and care system helped assess pandemic preparedness on health and care data collection and sharing and Exercise PEGASUS provided a valuable opportunity to test and refine plans in relation to data and research. Both exercises have identified and prioritised further activity to ensure ongoing improvement in the use of data for pandemic preparedness. This will include the testing of developments like the National Data and Analytics Platform, which will further strengthen Wales’ ability to share timely, governed health data with partners during emergency responses.

The National Situation Centre continues to provide vital situational awareness for crisis response and national resilience, and there has been progress in the rollout of capabilities which enhance our ability to prepare for and respond to future pandemics.

On 25 November 2025, Minister Ahmed announced that Baroness Blackwood had been appointed by the government as Chair of the Health Data Research Service (HDRS), backed by up to £600 million in funding from the government and Wellcome, during a speech at the Health Data User Conference in London. Further information on the appointment of the Chair and HDRS can be found in the press release published [here](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/visionary-leader-appointed-for-health-data-research-service).

The Biothreats Radar platform was successfully launched across government via the National Situation Centre’s secure data sharing platform. An initial version, which aggregates data from departments, third-party providers, and open source reporting on global biological incidents, was rolled out to a selection of users across government in September 2025. The Biothreat Radar’s content and data sources will be expanded throughout the 2025-2026 financial year to provide more comprehensive situational awareness of emerging biothreats.

The Risk Vulnerability Tool is now available on our cross-government data sharing platform. The Pandemic Risk has been added to the Risk Vulnerability Tool and was made available to users across the UK and Devolved Governments as part of Exercise PEGASUS.

Implementation update for recommendation 5 - data and research for future pandemics (updated June 2025)

17. There are a number of initiatives across government contributing to this work, including the National Situation Centre, which provides situational awareness for crisis response and national resilience. It is highly regarded internationally as a benchmark for the use of data in crisis. Separately, the government’s commitment to invest up to £600m with the Wellcome Trust to launch the world’s first Health Data Research Service will drive research and innovation, enabling us to be better prepared for future health emergencies. Creating a single-entry point to NHS data saves researchers time they would otherwise spend navigating complex systems and helps them access information more quickly and securely. Updates on specific commitments made in the government response include:

a. The Biothreats Radar has been launched across government on the National Situation Centre’s secure data sharing platform. It brings together open source reporting on global biological incidents and further data sources will be added throughout 2025.

b. The Risk Vulnerability Tool (RVT) has been developed by the National Situation Centre and Office for National Statistics to estimate the number of individuals vulnerable to the negative impacts of selected NRR risks. The RVT is now accessible to all officials and ministers in UK and devolved governments. The pandemic risk will be added to the RVT, along with the associated data on household and individual characteristics that may be more negatively affected by the emergence of a pandemic or mitigating actions such as lockdowns by the end of 2025.

c. Building on the existing NHS Research Secure Data Environment (SDE) Network. As of the end of March 2025 there were: 105 projects completed across the SDE Network Pipeline; 314 projects live across the network; and 85 further projects in the pipeline and close to going live, pending final data confirmations. This equates to 504 projects delivered, in progress, or in the pipeline across both regional and national SDEs.

d. As of May 2025, NHS DigiTrials has invited over 29 million citizens to participate in research, with 1.35 million consented into 7 large-scale clinical trials. This includes 1 million participants that NHS DigiTrials has supported Our Future Health to recruit since June 2023.

e. The National Situation Centre has been working with the devolved governments to improve how we each share data in crisis. A Memorandum of Understanding to formalise the UK government and devolved government data sharing relationship is agreed and will be signed by officials in the coming weeks.