UK Covid-19 Inquiry - Module 1 report: progress update - January 2026

8. Regular reporting

Recommendation Eight – Published reports on whole-system civil emergency preparedness and resilience

Chair’s recommendation:

The governments of the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should each produce and publish reports to their respective legislatures at least every three years on whole-system civil emergency preparedness and resilience. The reports should include as a minimum:

• The risks that each government has identified are likely to result in whole-system civil emergencies;
• The recommendations that have been made to each government to mitigate those risks, and whether these recommendations have been accepted or rejected;
• A cost–benefit analysis setting out the economic and social costs of accepting the risks as against taking action to mitigate the risks;
• Who may be vulnerable to the risks and what steps are being taken to mitigate those risks;
• A plan setting out the timescales for implementing the recommendations that have been accepted; and
• An update on the progress that has been made on implementing previously accepted recommendations.

Implementation actions and timescales set out in our January 2025 response:

• We will lay our first report before the Scottish Parliament during September 2025, with further reports to follow at least every three years.

Progress update as at January 2026:

• The Scottish Government laid the first report, ‘The Scottish Government Report on Whole System Civil Emergency Preparedness 2025’ in the Scottish Parliament on 30 September 2025;
• The report included sections on resilience arrangements, resilience partnerships, the Scottish Risk Assessment, Scottish Government arrangements, communication and engagement (including with the voluntary and community sectors), emergency alerts, and training and exercising. The report was also published on gov.scot: Civil emergency whole system preparedness: 2025 report - gov.scot; and
• The Scottish Government has committed to providing a report to Parliament at least every three years.

The Scottish Government considers this recommendation closed.