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

9. Red teams

Recommendation Nine – Regular use of red teams

Chair’s recommendation:

The governments of the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should each introduce the use of red teams in the Civil Service to scrutinise and challenge the principles, evidence, policies and advice relating to preparedness for and resilience to whole-system civil emergencies. The red teams should be brought in from outside of government and the Civil Service.

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

• By July 2025, we will have scoped the potential use of further ‘red teaming’ and external scrutiny to support the development and implementation of our plans, processes and procedures

Progress update as at January 2026:

• The Scottish Government has continued to work with UK Government to develop its red teaming capacity; and
• The National Centre for Resilience is finalising reports and issuing further academic challenges following a series of round-table workshops attended by; those with academic expertise, policy leads, people with lived experience; and practitioner input. Workshops discussed wider aspects of emergency planning policy including; mis- and dis-information, strengthening the civil contingencies resilience system with disabled people, and the role of educators in supporting the development of emergency resilience in younger people.