"Fundamental reform" is required in the UK's response to dangers like pandemics, according to the chairperson of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. Pandemic preparedness has several "significant flaws," according to Baroness Heather Hallett.

Lady Hallett 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.

Baroness Hallett said the UK will face “immense suffering” if it is not better prepared for the next pandemic.

Releasing her first report on pandemic preparedness and resilience in the UK, she said: “There will likely be a next time. The expert evidence suggests it is not a question of ‘if’ another pandemic will strike but ‘when’.

“The evidence is overwhelmingly to the effect that another pandemic – potentially one that is even more transmissible and lethal – is likely to occur in the near to medium future.

“That means that the UK will again face a pandemic that, unless we are better prepared, will bring with it immense suffering and huge financial cost and the most vulnerable in society will suffer the most.”

“My report recommends fundamental reform of the way in which the UK Government and the devolved administrations prepare for whole-system civil emergencies,” she said.

“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.”

The UK was “dangerously mistaken” to believe that it was one of the best prepared countries in the world to respond to a pandemic, Baroness Heather Hallett said.

In 2019, it was widely believed in Britain and abroad that the UK was “not only properly prepared but was one of the best-prepared countries in the world to respond to a pandemic,” she said.

“This belief was dangerously mistaken. In reality, the UK was ill-prepared for dealing with the whole-system civil emergency of a pandemic, let alone the coronavirus pandemic that actually struck.

Baroness Hallett said there were “fatal strategic flaws underpinning the assessment of the risks faced by the UK.

She said: “The institutions and structures responsible for emergency planning were labyrinthine in their complexity.

“There were fatal strategic flaws underpinning the assessment of the risks faced by the UK, how those risks and their consequences could be managed and prevented from worsening and how the state should respond.”

Baroness Heather Hallett said that UK citizens were “failed”.

“I have no hesitation in concluding that the processes, planning and policy of the civil contingency structures across the UK failed the citizens of all four nations,” she said.

“There were serious errors on the part of the state and serious flaws in our civil emergency systems. This cannot be allowed to happen again.”

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.