Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness minutes: 1 June 2022

Attendees and apologies

Chair: 

• Professor Andrew Morris

Attendees:

• Professor Julie Fitzpatrick
• Professor Sir Gregor Smith
• Professor Linda Bauld
• Dr Audrey MacDougall
• Professor Tom Evans
• Dr Jim McMenamin
• Professor Massimo Palmarini
• Professor Devi Sridhar
• Professor Stephen Reicher
• Dr Ian Campbell
• Richard Foggo

Observers:

• Daniel Kleinberg

Apologies:

• Dr Graham Foster
• Professor Nick Phin
• Professor Aziz Sheikh
• Professor Emma Thomson
• Professor Mathew Williams
• Professor Mark Woolhouse

Secretariat:

• redacted S.38 (1)(b)
• redacted S.38 (1)(b)

Items and actions

Introduction

The Chair noted the importance of the Committee’s being outward looking and for it to consider the structures and governance to put in place for future pandemic preparedness. It is important that the work of the Committee draws on the existing landscape and thinking developing in this area. The work of the Committee should be practical, feasible and rooted in the Scottish context.

Minutes for the last meeting had been circulated to the Committee and will be published shortly.

Mapping exercise

The Committee were given an update on an initial mapping exercise of ongoing work related to pandemic preparedness taking place within the Scottish Government. This connects to work underway at the UK level, which Scottish Government officials are engaging with. The Standing Committee should draw on existing work and connect in with this, and identify in the context of Scotland where additional areas of work may be required.

The Committee commented on the timeline of the work commissioned to the Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness by the Scottish Government, noting the importance of maintaining momentum. The Committee and Chair agreed that the focus of the SCoPP is primarily strategy and principles for future pandemic response rather than an operational plan for future pandemic response.

The Committee was updated on relevant groups within the Scottish Government. These groups move beyond clinical and scientific issues. Going forward it will be important for the Standing Committee to engage with these groups and share relevant information. There are a number of other groups across the Scottish Government and also PHS that it is important the work of the Committee connects into. These include the Data and Intelligence Forum and the COVID-19 Learning and Recovery Group.

Action:

• mapping paper to be updated with group chairs’ names alongside Scottish and UK-level groups relevant to the Standing Committee’s work
• secretariat to draft communication strategy for the SCoPP to ensure that partners have awareness of the upcoming interim report, including partners in UK Government

Interim report timeline

The interim report will not aim to reinvent the wheel. It will draw on existing evidence to set the Scottish and global context, such as the White House’s American Pandemic Preparedness: Transforming Our Capabilities report.

The recommendation is that working groups should aim to describe one or two key issues and principles that need addressing for Scotland in the immediate future. Alongside these, there may then be further work needed across the working groups beyond the interim reports. In some cases, the working groups may make specific recommendations for solutions and they may recommend additional work to be undertaken in certain areas.

As part of the context, the Committee noted the different responses needed to different types of pandemics in the future and the need to acknowledge this in the interim report.

Under each of the problem statements and recommendations that the working groups will consider, the report will seek to draw in the existing landscape and work and where the gaps are that the working group will make recommendations on. The report should be future proofed to ensure that the recommendations and work of the Committee support preparedness for future pandemics.

Working groups

The chair or a nominated representative of each working group provided an update on the progress of their work. Working groups will continue to meet in the coming weeks to draft their contributions to the interim report.

Closing remarks

The Chair thanked Committee members for their participation and thanked the working group chairs for taking forward the work of their respective groups.