People were "failed" by lack of preparation for Covid-19 pandemic

Devolved Governments have been highly criticised in the first report from the UK Covid Inquiry which says people were "failed" by lack of preparation for a pandemic.

The report says there were "several significant flaws" in how the outbreak was dealt with and found that the measures in place were outdated.

Module 1 of the inquiry focussed on the resilience and preparedness of governments for a whole-system pandemic and took evidence from over 213 witnesses and 103,000 documents.

UK 'lacked resilience'

Inquiry Chair The Rt Hon the Baroness Hallett opened the report by saying ‘radical reform’ was needed for how the UK prepares for a pandemic, and said the UK lacked resilience.

Baroness Hallett did praise health service workers, saying “the UK was spared worse by the individual efforts and dedication of health and social care workers and the civil and public servants who battled the pandemic”. However, she said a slowdown in health improvement and widening health inequalities affected how well the health service was able to manage the pandemic.

She outlined that, before the pandemic, the UK was thought to be ‘one of the best prepared countries in the world’ to respond to a pandemic but went on to say the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted how ‘ill-prepared’ the UK really was.

Where the UK's preparedness went wrong

There were 9 ‘significant flaws’ highlighted in the report about the preparedness of the UK that were outlined by the coronavirus pandemic.

• The United Kingdom prepared for the wrong pandemic. The UK and devolved governments had prepared for a flu-like pandemic, but those preparations were inadequate for a global pandemic of the same kind as Covid.
• Institutions responsible for emergency planning were a ‘labyrinth in their complexity’ making it harder to make well informed decisions.
• The assessment of risks faced by the UK, and how they could be managed and responded to had ‘fatal strategic flaws’
• UK’s sole pandemic strategy was from 2011 and was outdated, lacked adaptability and was ‘virtually abandoned on its first encounter with a pandemic’.
• Pre-existing health and social inequalities were not properly taken into account, meaning the needs of ethnic minority communities and those with poor health or other vulnerabilities were not properly considered.
• There was a failure to learn from past civil emergency exercises and outbreaks of disease.
• The was a ‘damaging’ absence of focus on measures, interventions and infrastructure required in the event of a pandemic. For example, if measures could be scaled up as a pandemic worsened.
• Governments had a lack of adequate leadership, coordination and oversite. Ministers who are ‘frequently untrained in the specialist field of civil contingencies’ were not presented with enough range of scientific opinion and policy options.
• Advisors did not have enough freedom to express opposing views to those of the majority, meaning advice was often undermined by ‘group think’.

The inquiry concluded that the planning and preparedness within the UK Governments for a pandemic ‘failed their citizens’ and said ‘fundamental reform’ was needed in the way the UK and devolved governments prepared for whole-system civil emergencies.

Baroness Hallett said that had the UK been better prepared for a pandemic, the nation would have avoided some of the ‘significant and long lasting’ financial, economic and human cost of the Covid-19 pandemic.

She said ‘radical reform’ was needed because another pandemic hitting the UK is a case of when, not if.

“Never again can a disease be allowed to lead to so many deaths and so much suffering”.

The 10 recommendations from the inquiry

The report listed 10 recommendations for the UK and devolved governments to ensure the UK would be more resilient and prepared against a future pandemic:

1. A single cabinet level committee should be created in each government responsible preparedness. There should also be a single group of senior officials to oversee and implement policy on emergency preparedness and resilience.

2. The current government model for a whole-system civil emergency preparedness should be abolished.

3. UK and devolved governments should develop new approach to risk assessment that moves away from reliance on worse case scenarios. They should instead focus on a wide range of scenarios. It should also better reflect the circumstances in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and the UK as a whole.

4. A new UK wide whole system civil emergency strategy should be put in place and be reassessed at least every three years and should be adapted if needed

5. Systems of data collection should be improved and shared in advance of future pandemics. In the event of a new virus, reports should be commissioned to understand it’s prevalence, measure the effectiveness of different public health measures, and identify which groups are vulnerable to it.

6. A UK wide pandemic response exercise should be held every three years, including the UK wide, cross government, national and local responses to a pandemic.

7. The findings of these exercises should then be published within three months.

8. Regular reports on the whole-system preparedness and resilience should be published every three years, including identifying risks, and assessing financial cost of accepting verses mitigating those risks.

9. External experts called a ‘red team’ from outside government should be brought in to challenge ideas and policies of the civil service and government.

10. A single independent body should be created that is responsible for preparedness to provide independent strategic advice to the UK and devolved governments. They will be expected to consult with experts in the field and speak with leaders in different communities and the social sector to help implement changes to best suit vulnerable groups.

What happens now

This 81,000-word report from the UK Covid inquiry is highly critical of the UK and devolved governments and how prepared they were for a pandemic as impactful as Covid.

Chair of the Inquiry Baroness Hallett says many of these reforms should be put in place in the next 12 months.

She also highlighted how reforms should not be cherry-picked, as they are designed to work best when implemented together.

The UK Covid Inquiry continues.

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