No independent statutory body for whole-system civil preparedness

Covid-19 Inquiry Module 1 Recommendation 10 called for a UK-wide independent statutory body for whole-system civil emergency preparedness, resilience and response. The government rejected it (Jan 2025), saying it cannot 'outsource' responsibility, offering instead enhanced SAGE, eight standing advisory groups and unspecified 'independent challenge'. CLTR and the National Preparedness Commission argue this leaves no OBR/CCC-equivalent scrutineer able to audit and publicly report on preparedness between crises; existing bodies advise but cannot independently hold government to account.

Every review since 2020 named 'groupthink' and absent external challenge as core failures. Without a statutory scrutineer, preparedness depends on the government of the day auditing itself - the exact pattern the Inquiry blamed for the UK's under-preparedness in 2020.

A National Resilience Act creating an independent statutory body (modelled on the OBR or Climate Change Committee) with a duty to scrutinise, stress-test and publicly report on cross-hazard civil-emergency preparedness, plus statutory power to demand information.

// State-led: Instrument: National Resilience Act creating an OBR/CCC-model statutory scrutineer with information powers; government rejected it January 2025.

A well-understood OBR-style model would give whole-hazard preparedness its only independent auditor, yet government rejected it in January 2025, leaving it unowned with no dated trigger forcing action.