Leadership Succession Arrangements
COVID-19 Inquiry · Module 2: Core Decision-Making · Issued 20 November 2025 · Addressed to: Cabinet Office
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation
The UK government and the devolved administrations should each establish formal arrangements for covering the roles of Prime Minister and First Minister (and in Northern Ireland, deputy First Minister) as applicable during a whole-system civil emergency, should the incumbent be unable to undertake their duties for any reason.
COVID-19 Inquiry, Module 2: Core Decision-Making · 20 Nov 2025 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:
- No details were provided on the specific form these contingency arrangements will take.
- No published documentation of formal succession or deputisation arrangements for the Prime Minister during emergencies has been identified.
Sources
Response — verbatim from government
●Scottish Government — initial response
No formal response published by this government.
Scottish Government · 20 Nov 2025
●Welsh Government — follow-up
No formal response published by this government.
Welsh Government · 20 Nov 2025
●Northern Ireland Executive — follow-up
No formal response published by this government.
Northern Ireland Executive · 20 Nov 2025
●UK Government — follow-up
The Government accepts the recommendation and the Prime Minister will put in place the appropriate arrangements.
UK Government · 20 Nov 2025 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
- 20 Nov 2025 Status: In Progress. The Government accepts the recommendation and the Prime Minister will put in place the appropriate arrangements. Source →
Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.
How this page is built
Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.
This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.