No independent statutory body for whole-system civil preparedness

Module 1 of the Covid-19 Inquiry recommended a UK-wide independent statutory body for whole-system civil emergency preparedness, resilience and response. The government rejected the recommendation in January 2025, saying it cannot outsource responsibility, and offered instead an enhanced SAGE, eight standing advisory groups and unspecified independent challenge. CLTR and the National Preparedness Commission argue this leaves no OBR or Climate Change Committee equivalent able to audit and publicly report on preparedness between crises. The existing bodies advise, and none can independently hold government to account.

Every review since 2020 named groupthink and absent external challenge as core failures. Preparedness now depends on the government of the day auditing itself, the pattern the Inquiry blamed for the under-preparedness of 2020.

A National Resilience Act creating an independent statutory body on the OBR or Climate Change Committee model, with a duty to scrutinise, stress-test and publicly report on cross-hazard preparedness, and 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.

An OBR-style model would give preparedness its only independent auditor, and government rejected it in January 2025, leaving the function unowned with no dated trigger.