Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness minutes: May 2024

Attendees and apologies

• Professor Andrew Morris
• Professor Linda Bauld
• Professor Tom Evans
• Professor Dame Anna Dominiczak
• Dr Audrey MacDougall
• Dr Jim McMenamin
• Professor Josephine Pravinkumar
• Professor Stephen Reicher
• Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh
• Professor Nicola Steedman
• Professor Massimo Palmarini
• Professor Nicholas Phin
• Professor Mark Woolhouse

Observers

• Daniel Kleinberg
• Redacted S.38 (1)(b)

Secretariat

• Redacted S.38 (1)(b)
• Redacted S.38 (1)(b)
• Redacted S.38 (1)(b)

Items and actions

1.    Welcome & Introduction 

The Chair welcomed attendees to the meeting and noted apologies. 

 

2.     Scottish Government Update

The Committee were given an update on progress of pandemic preparedness work in the Scottish Government, including engagement with Ministers and Cabinet, as well as work with the UK Government and other Devolved Administrations. 

Committee members asked about the connection between the final report of the SCoPP and the wider Scottish Government pandemic preparedness work and how the two tie together. Daniel Kleinberg noted that the report makes recommendations to the Scottish Government which includes specific input on areas such as scientific advice. The Scottish Government will provide a response to the report after it receives the recommendations from the Committee. 

Committee members noted that events such as the H5N1 cases in cattle provide real-world examples of outbreaks that prompt questions about the tools and information recording and sharing that would be deployed in future pandemics. Frameworks such as the WHO MOSAIC respiratory surveillance and the work led by Richard Pebody were noted and the group reiterated the importance of behavioural science considerations for future pandemic preparedness and response. There is now a UK social and behavioural science group for emergencies which is attended by the Chief Social Policy Adviser and the Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland. The Chief Scientist (Health) also spoke about UK work on research and innovation readiness which the Scottish Government is connected into. The importance of continuing to learn from the Scottish, UK, and international contexts was reiterated. 

Committee members asked about the connection between events such as pertussis, avian influenza and the developing pandemic preparedness and response work being undertaken by the Scottish Government. Daniel Kleinberg spoke about harnessing the focus we now have on pandemic preparedness to deploy assets against new and emerging threats and challenges. Work being undertaken by the UKHSA was noted and it is important that the Scottish Government is remains connected into this work. 

The Scottish Government was asked about the inclusion of pandemics as part of work programmes and strategies for the use of health data. There was agreement about the importance of noting the potential of business-as-usual programmes and structures being used for pandemics. 

ACTION: Secretariat to circulate link to upcoming Lancet paper by Professor Aziz Sheikh when published. 

The Chair summarised the discussion, noting the importance of coordination and connectivity in a complex and rapidly changing landscape at UK level and at international level. The Chair suggested mapping connections to initiatives at UK and International level to understand Scotland’s connection to existing initiatives and opportunities to add to these. 

 

3.     Discussion of Draft Final Report

The Committee aims to finalise the report and publish this by August deadline. The focus of the Committee’s discussions was to identify any outstanding gaps, areas to develop, and agree the next steps. 

The final report sets out the functions that a pandemic preparedness partnership (previously referred to as a Centre) could deliver. This enables the beginning of a prioritisation exercise to understand the delivery of these. In the next few weeks work will continue in parallel by PHS to consider the approach for the establishment of a partnership, including considering its functions, purpose, funding, and agreeing a name for it. A proposed name is the Scottish Partnership for Pandemic Preparedness (SParc) and Committee members were favourable to this name. 

Committee members discussed the scope of the final report in the context of the scope of the Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness commission. The report does not cover areas such as NHS resilience as these are not in scope but the Committee underlined the importance of these area and ensuring the reason these are not included is clearly articulated in the final report. Parts of the report currently focus heavily on the research for future pandemic preparedness and response. The connection of this to the NHS should be made clearer, with clear links to public health research questions.  The partnership should also look to build connections to animal health and One Health initiatives, given the risk of future outbreaks originating from an animal reservoir. 

The Committee was supportive of the focus on inequalities and community anchors in sections of the report. The importance of trust as an enabler of the uptake of interventions and behaviours during pandemics was discussed, and should be considered as part of pandemic planning. The long-term narrative around the COVID-19 pandemic will also play a role in shaping the response to future pandemics. 

On data, the Committee suggested the need to make clearer  in the report the duty to share data alongside the importance of continuing to handle and process this data in a secure and trustworthy way. This include making explicit the role of PHS in working with Research Data Scotland for the delivery of recommendations on data. 

The Chair summarised the discuss of the report:

• the key recommendation is for a partnership which adds value to pandemic preparedness
• work has been undertaken by Committee members on how this could be delivered. This is helpful to have ‘off-the-shelf’ following the publication of the final report and the existence of this should be noted in the final report
• the scope of the partnership must be clear: what it is for, what its purpose is, its leadership, expertise, coordination and connectivity
• the scope of the final report should be stated clearly in the report. The final report will not touch on all areas relevant to pandemic preparedness (e.g. PPE, NHS staffing, procurement etc.)
• specific mentions of children and young people and animal health should be included in the final report
• for data, the report should make clear the need for more ready access to advanced digital infrastructure

In the partnership and any future Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness, the focus is ultimately the provision of advice for the protection of the health of the people of Scotland before and during emergency outbreak responses. PPE and other statutory activities have accountability elsewhere. The recommendations should be set into that context, making clear that these on their own do not address all of future pandemic preparedness and response. The Committee in particular, noted the stark challenges facing the NHS and existing vulnerabilities in Scotland connected to population health challenges. 

The Committee considered the governance and funding of the partnership, but noted that these will need to be developed after the final report recommendations are made to the Scottish Government. Committee members suggested that it would be helpful to include a short example in the report of the added benefit that a partnership will offer in the future. The example of the threat H5N1 in dairy products was offered as one possible examples. 

ACTION: Secretariat to work with Tom Evans to articulate half a page on the added benefit and value add of the CPP, with an example. 

ACTION: Final comments to be shared by Committee members by 7 June, with report then updated and circulated to the Chair for comment by 10 June. 

ACTION: Mark Woolhouse to send updated draft of business case to Secretariat to ensure consistency of drafting. 

ACTION: Secretariat to draft short document that sets out where report fits into wider pandemic preparedness work context and share for discussion with Aziz Sheikh.

4.    Any other business and next steps

The Committee briefly discussed next steps. The aim is to hold a final meeting of the Committee, with the international reference group in mid-July. The aim is then to publish the final report in August.

The Chair thanked all members for their contributions.