UK Covid-19 Inquiry - Module 1 report: Scottish Government response

8. Regular reporting

Recommendation Eight – Published reports on whole-system civil emergency preparedness and resilience

Chair’s recommendation:

The governments of the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should each produce and publish reports to their respective legislatures at least every three years on whole-system civil emergency preparedness and resilience.

The reports should include as a minimum:

• The risks that each government has identified are likely to result in whole-system civil emergencies
• The recommendations that have been made to each government to mitigate those risks, and whether these recommendations have been accepted or rejected
• A cost–benefit analysis setting out the economic and social costs of accepting the risks as against taking action to mitigate the risks
• Who may be vulnerable to the risks and what steps are being taken to mitigate those risks
• A plan setting out the timescales for implementing the recommendations that have been accepted and
• An update on the progress that has been made on implementing previously accepted recommendations.

Scottish Government response:

The Scottish Government accepts this recommendation in principle. We accept the spirit of regularly reporting to our legislature on whole-system civil emergency preparedness and resilience. We acknowledge the importance of aiming to continually improve the resilience landscape in Scotland to mitigate the risks and impacts of emergencies. To achieve this recommendation in principle, we will report to our legislature every three years, covering the improvements introduced on civil emergency preparedness and resilience in Scotland.

We recognise the importance of reporting on the risks we face and what we, as a government, are doing to mitigate these risks. There is significant value in increasing transparency around the actions that government are taking. This will improve awareness regarding the risks we face, how these risks may impact people, particularly vulnerable people, and how we can make improvements to our systems and processes to deal with risks effectively. To achieve this, we are committing to report to our legislature every three years on the improvements and changes that we have introduced to the Scottish Resilience landscape to enhance civil emergency preparedness and resilience across the country.

In reviewing this recommendation, we have had to consider our ability to provide open, honest advice to Ministers and to ensure that the security of the country is not impacted. For this reason, we may be unable to include full information with regard to every risk identified for some of the points listed in this recommendation. However, we will endeavour to include as much information as possible in our three yearly reports.

Publishing these reports will increase transparency around the actions that we are taking to manage civil emergencies. We will be regularly reviewing resilience systems and processes to determine whether there are any gaps for improvement, which can be acted on and reported to our legislature. This will reinforce our role in making Scotland a resilient country and contribute to our delivery of the National Performance Outcome to ensure we live in communities that are inclusive, empowered, resilient and safe.

The first of these reports will be laid before the Scottish Parliament in September 2025

Accountable Officer:

The Director General for Strategy and External Affairs, working with the Civil Contingencies Division within the Scottish Government will be accountable for the implementation of the Scottish elements of this recommendation.

Implementation timescales:

• We will lay our first report before the Scottish Parliament during September 2025, with further reports to follow at least every three years.