Inquiry Recommendations
Further action in response to our campaign
There are also aspects of Module 1 where the Government has gone further than the official inquiry recommendations, thanks to pressure from Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice. These include:
Crisis training -
We argued that ministers, civil servants and local officials must be trained in decision-making and civil contingency management during crises. This did not feature in the Inquiry recommendations, but the Government has agreed to roll out crisis leadership and national security training for ministers, while also launching the UK Resilience Academy to train thousands of staff each year.
Data sharing -
We proposed there should be improvements to the sharing of resilience and preparedness data with local areas and tiers of government. Although not featured in the Inquiry recommendations, the Government has established a mechanism whereby capability and capacity data will be shared on joint platforms between the national and local levels. The new Risk Vulnerability Tool will also be rolled out to the local level.
Inequalities -
We called on the Government to commission research into reducing pandemic inequalities, including those arising from structural and institutional discrimination. This was not addressed by the Inquiry, but the Government Office for Science has commissioned work that will help identify people who may become vulnerable in a crisis. This work will explore a more effective system of assessing vulnerability, to make it a routine part of planning and preparedness.