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

4. A UK-Wide Strategy

Recommendation Four – A UK-wide whole-system civil emergency strategy

Chair’s recommendation:

The UK Government and devolved governments should together introduce a UK-wide whole-system civil emergency strategy (which includes pandemics) to prevent

each emergency and also to reduce, control and mitigate its effects.

As a minimum, the strategy should:

• Be adaptable;
• Include sections dedicated to each potential whole-system civil emergency – for example, one on pandemics with a clear explanation of the roles and responsibilities of the UK Government, devolved governments and their departments/directorates as well as local responders;
• Consider a wide range of potential scenarios for each type of emergency;
• Identify the key issues and set out a range of potential responses;
• Identify how the strategy is to be applied to ensure that any potential responses are proportionate to the particular circumstances of the emergency;
• Include an assessment in the short, medium and long term, based on published modelling, of the potential health, social and economic impacts of the emergency and of potential responses to the emergency on the population and, in particular, on vulnerable people; and
• Include an assessment of the infrastructure, technology and skills the UK needs to respond effectively to the emergency and how those needs might change for different scenarios.

The strategy should be subject to a substantive reassessment at least every three years to ensure that it is up to date and effective, incorporating lessons learned between reassessments.

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

• A first version of the core Concept of Operations (CONOPS) for the Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGORR) will be completed by end of July 2025. It will subsequently be subject to regular reviews and adaptations to ensure continued fitness for purpose and additions of scenario-specific plans developed with consideration of the risk landscape.

Progress update as at January 2026:

• As planned, the first version of the core CONOPS for SGORR was completed by the end of July 2025. It will be subject to regular reviews and adaptations to ensure continued fitness for purpose and additions of scenario-specific plans developed with consideration of the risk landscape;
• Following Integrated Emergency Management principles, the generic response arrangements set out in the SGORR CONOPS allow SGORR to respond to a wide range of emergencies. For risks that require deviations from or additions to these standard operating procedures, additional plans will be developed as required;
• In line with our continuous improvement approach to risk assessment, the development of associated plans will be conducted on an iterative basis. As part of this work, the SGORR Secretariat will engage on an ongoing basis with relevant stakeholders such as the UK Government and categorised responders to help ensure roles and responsibilities are clear and agreed;
• Work is progressing on the development of a dedicated Scottish Resilience Strategy. The Scottish Government will assess the UK Government’s Resilience Strategy’s applicability in Scotland to minimise duplication; and
• Alongside this work the Scottish Government is considering its response to recommendations 10, 12 and 19 of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry’s Module 2ABC report (November 2025) which refer to this recommendation.