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

• As set out in our progress update of January 2026, the Scottish Government completed the first version of the core CONOPS for SGORR by the end of July 2025. The CONOPS remains subject to regular review and adaptation to ensure it is fit for purpose, alongside the addition of scenario-specific plans developed with consideration of the risk landscape.
• The Scottish Government also contributed to the UK Government's Amber Book (a national framework for crisis response that establishes roles and responsibilities) ahead of its publication on 28 April 2025, including input to the annex focusing on four nation working and the links between devolved governments and the UK Government during response.
• Work is currently underway to consider a Scottish Resilience Strategy.
• This recommendation, alongside work already undertaken, was considered as part of the Scottish Government’s response to the Inquiry’s Module 2 Report (Recommendations 12 and 19), published 17 March 2026.

The Scottish Government wrote to the inquiry chair on 18 May 2026 to confirm that this recommendation has been delivered and closed.