UK Covid-19 Inquiry report calls for ‘radical reform’ in pandemic planning

External teams should be brought in to tackle the “acute problem of groupthink” among officials helping the country prepare for future pandemics, the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry said.

The first report of the pandemic probe highlights how advice given by experts was “often undermined by groupthink”.

Inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett’s report says that the “antidote to groupthink is external scrutiny, oversight and challenge” as she recommended that external “red teams” should be used to “scrutinise and challenge” the evidence, policies and advice relating to pandemic preparedness.

Lady Hallett said there needs to be “fundamental reform” in the way the UK prepares for threats such as a pandemic.

She said that “it is not a question of ‘if’ another pandemic will strike but ‘when'”, as she set out a series of measures which would put the UK on a better footing for the next outbreak.

The recommendations include: a UK-wide pandemic response exercise at least every three years; a “radical simplification of the civil emergency preparedness and resilience systems” and the creation of a single, independent body responsible for whole system preparedness and response.

Lady Hallett also called for “the bringing in of external expertise from outside government and the civil services to challenge orthodoxy and guard against the acute problem of groupthink”.

A number of key witnesses “explicitly attributed at least some blame for the UK’s lack of pandemic preparedness on groupthink”, including former prime minister Lord Cameron , former chancellor George Osborne , former health secretary Jeremy Hunt as well as former chief medical officer for England (CMO) Professor Dame Sally Davies and current CMO for England Professor Sir Chris Whitty.

In a statement, Lady Hallett said: “My report recommends fundamental reform of the way in which the UK Government and the devolved administrations prepare for whole-system civil emergencies.

“If the reforms I recommend are implemented, the nation will be more resilient and better able to avoid the terrible losses and costs to society that the Covid-19 pandemic brought.”

In the foreword of the 217-page report she added: “There must be radical reform. Never again can a disease be allowed to lead to so many deaths and so much suffering.”

She said that if the recommendations are implemented then the “risk of loss and suffering in the future will be reduced”.

The inquiry made 10 recommendations, including:

– A new pandemic strategy should be developed and tested at least every three years with a UK-wide crisis response exercise.

– Within three months of the completion of the exercise, each government should publish a report of its findings, lessons and recommendations and within six months it should publish an action plan laying out the steps taken in response.

– A new UK-wide whole-system civil emergency strategy should be put in place and subject to substantive reassessment at least every three years to ensure that it is up to date and effective and incorporates lessons learned from civil emergency exercises.

– External “red teams” of experts from outside Whitehall and government should be brought in to challenge and guard against “the known problem of groupthink”.

– A committee chaired by the leader or deputy leader of government and made up of cabinet ministers or ministerial equivalents should be established by every UK government to deal with “whole-system civil emergency preparedness and resilience”, as well as a single group of officials across Whitehall departments overseeing and implementing the policy.

– The “lead government department model” – in which a single department leads the crisis response – for dealing with preparing for civil emergencies should be abolished as it is “not appropriate”.

– A new approach to risk assessment should be developed by the UK Government and devolved administrations, moving away from reliance on reasonable worst case scenarios and towards a process that considers a wider range of possibilities.

– Every three years, each government should publish a report to its legislature on crisis response and preparedness.

– The UK Government should consult with the devolved administrations to create a nationwide independent statutory body for whole-system civil emergency preparedness, resilience and response.

– The UK Government and devolved nations should establish new mechanisms for the timely collection, analysis and use of reliable data for informing emergency responses, such as data systems to be tested in pandemic exercises. A wider range of “hibernated” and other studies should be commissioned, designed to be rapidly adapted to a new outbreak.