Four Nations Pandemic Structure

The government agrees that a clear four-nations structure is needed during the transition away from COBR (acute crisis response) to an enduring pandemic response to ensure alignment in decision making across the four nations where appropriate.

A review of intergovernmental relations, conducted jointly between the UK and devolved governments, was published in 2022. The agreed structures and ways of working arising from this review have been adopted by all four governments and provide the foundation for effective joint working, including during a crisis.

During the transition from COBR to enduring structures, there should be a discussion between the four nations, following the principles for intergovernmental working as set out in the 2022 Intergovernmental Relations review, to finalise the appropriate structures and ministerial representation, to ensure effective working across all four governments.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic and in preparation for Exercise PEGASUS, the Cabinet Office has collaborated with departments and the devolved governments on the operational planning for the transition of leadership coordination for a pandemic response from COBR (acute crisis) to a taskforce. Where appropriate, ministers and officials from the relevant devolved governments will be invited to attend COBR, and taskforce Cabinet Committee meetings once an enduring response is being coordinated by a taskforce. We will continue to work with the devolved governments to reflect lessons from Exercise PEGASUS in our operational planning.

Accepted

We support early and consistent participation of the Executive in COBR during whole‑system emergencies.

We will work with the UK Government and Devolved Governments to agree proportionate and workable arrangements for future pandemics. In recognition of our particular constitutional arrangements, these arrangements should involve all relevant Executive Departments, not only The Executive Office and the Department of Health.

We will embed these arrangements, as appropriate, into future preparedness strategies, shared CONOPS and the next review of the NI Civil Contingencies Framework.

As demonstrated during the Covid-19 Pandemic, UK‑level decisions have direct and immediate implications locally, making Executive Ministerial and senior official involvement from the outset essential to ensure our constitutional, legal, operational and regional context fully informs decision making which impacts on a UK-wide scale.

This is particularly important given our unique position as the only part of the UK that shares a land border with the European Union on the island of Ireland. Differences in public health measures, travel arrangements or mitigation strategies across the island (which is a single epidemiological unit) can produce immediate cross‑border effects on both a North-South and East-West basis. NI representation in COBR is therefore critical to support a coherent UK‑wide response and maintain policy alignment across the island.

While ultimately it will be for the UK Government to ensure that our participation in COBR structures occurs from the outset, our Civil Contingencies Division will continue to work in partnership with the COBR unit, and with other Devolved Governments, to strengthen and clarify procedures and protocols for our involvement in UK level crisis management arrangements. This will include ensuring that there is a collective understanding of devolved responsibilities, upholding the Executive’s accountability to the Assembly, and embedding effective collaboration in any future response.

As we move away from the initial response period and into an enduring response, effective coordination will remain particularly important where impacts are shared across borders and require alignment of public health measures, data, modelling and communications.

Through the development of our own enduring response structures for a pandemic, which would be equivalent to the UK’s Taskforce Model, we will seek to ensure that our structures are interoperable with the wider UK structures (see response to Module 2 Recommendations 10 & 12). The development of these structures is already being undertaken through our review of catastrophic risks and the NI Civil Contingences Framework.

It is important that any new structure respects devolved responsibilities, including where decisions on reserved matters have devolved consequences. Participation in these arrangements must therefore complement rather than duplicate our own structures, which are clearly set out within the NI Civil Contingencies Framework. Interfaces between our Departments and their UK counterparts must be clear and consistent.

Ongoing collaboration with colleagues in the Irish Government will be essential as we address cross-border issues and work to enhance resilience and preparedness in areas of shared interest.

Decisions within the devolved sphere must continue to be taken by NI Ministers, who remain accountable to the Assembly.

The Scottish Government accepts this recommendation in principle. The Scottish Government agrees that there is significant value in achieving alignment in decision-making across the four nations, where appropriate and where it respects devolved decision-making.

The initial COBR response and any longer-term response and recovery structures must give due consideration to Scottish Ministers’ accountability to the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish people. Any decision in a devolved area must ultimately be taken by Scottish Ministers with due regard to wider UK-based pandemic response.

The Scottish Government will work with the UK Government to agree in advance the structure for four nations coordination of the pandemic response to be used when transitioning to longer-term response and recovery structures.

This structure should be agreed on a four nations basis, with the facilitation of intergovernmental relations (IGR) through emergency and longer-term response and recovery structures delivered through a cross-government agreed Concept of Operations (CONOPS) or terms of reference document that codifies how this will be achieved. Any agreement should provide enough flexibility to tailor the proposed structure to the specific emergency situation, while respecting the principles of good intergovernmental working. Any intergovernmental agreement to facilitate immediate and longer-term decision-making must respect and help deliver devolved decision-making. It should also make clear how the transparency of this structure will be maintained through appropriate record keeping and reporting to parliaments.

In this regard, it is the Scottish Government’s view that the existing IGR structures and principles for engagement, jointly agreed by the UK Government and the devolved governments as part of the 2022 Intergovernmental Relations Review, provide a good foundation for any long-term pandemic or emergency response. That review was in part informed by the experience of four nations working during the Covid pandemic.

5.3. The Welsh Government also agrees that whilst intergovernmental relations should in most cases be facilitated through COBR in the initial phase of a future pandemic, a specific four-nations forum at heads of government level response should also be stood up, as per recommendation 19. We note the Inquiry’s recommendation that this forum is stood up at the same time as the transition away from COBR to nation-specific decision-making structures, but as stated above decisions about pandemic response in devolved areas must be made by the devolved governments from the outset of a pandemic (or any other whole system emergency). To deliver this recommendation, we will work with the UK Government and other devolved governments to develop collectively agreed arrangements, building on the existing overall intergovernmental structures and incorporating established best practice. If this approach is taken, we believe that four nations agreement is achievable within 12 months.

Take for example our work following the covid-19 inquiry: we considered the findings and made deliberate updates to our resilience plans, including strengthening our relationships with the devolved Governments through the four nations ministerial group.