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

6. Regular Response Exercises

Recommendation Six – A regular UK-wide pandemic response exercise

Chair’s recommendation:

The UK Government and devolved governments should together hold a UK-wide pandemic response exercise at least every three years. The exercise should:

• Test the UK-wide, cross-government, national and local response to a pandemic at all stages, from the initial outbreak to multiple waves over a number of years;
• Include a broad range of those involved in pandemic preparedness and response; and
• Consider how a broad range of vulnerable people will be helped in the event of a pandemic.

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

• We will participate in the UK-wide Tier 1 Pandemic Exercise during autumn 2025 (Exercise Pegasus).

Progress update as at January 2026:

• Exercise Pegasus was delivered in September-October 2025 across three consecutive phases, with the Scottish Government fully engaged. While live participation in Exercise Pegasus has concluded, a fourth phase focused on recovery is scheduled for 2026. The exercise was designed to rigorously test the UK’s response to a future pandemic caused by a novel infectious disease;
• Exercise Pegasus involved real-time decision-making and coordination across all UK Government departments, devolved governments and thousands of participants from across the nations and regions of the UK;
• Scottish Government officials played a key role in supporting and enabling the overall planning and delivery of the Exercise;
• Scottish Government officials also facilitated and fully supported the involvement of Resilience Partnerships across Scotland and their constituent members in the Exercise, both for planning and delivery. The Resilience Partnerships took part at two levels with Shetland, as part of Highlands and Islands Local Resilience Partnership, playing at enhanced level - responding to injects and testing the effects of the pandemic on a remote and rural community; and
• The Scottish Government has commenced a full process of review, evaluation, and debriefing in order to capture recommendations, both for the improvement of future exercising as well as response to emerging pandemic.