The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Mrs Sharon Hodgson)
I am today announcing the publication of the new pandemic preparedness strategy, outlining the UK Government plan for improving our pandemic preparedness capabilities between now and 2030.
The covid-19 pandemic was the most significant crisis that we have faced in generations. It touched every aspect of our lives, and its impacts continue to be felt across our communities. It showed that a future pandemic is one of the most profound threats to our society.
The UK is already a world leader in life sciences. Building on our strengths and the huge amount of work that has taken place since the pandemic to improve preparedness, the 2025 UK Government resilience action plan set out a new national approach to resilience, based on continuous assessment of readiness and mobilising the whole of society.
This strategy, which is backed by investment of around £1 billion for health protection during the current spending review period, is a demonstration of our resolve to protect the health of our nation, safeguard our economy and minimise the unequal impacts that pandemics can bring. It sets out the improvements that we will make to our health system response capabilities, and how they underpin a whole-of-Government and whole-of-society approach. It builds on the lessons identified from the covid-19 pandemic and is shaped by the findings of the UK covid-19 inquiry and indicative findings from Exercise Pegasus, the largest non-military exercise ever to take place in the UK. The exercise tested the Government’s ability to respond quickly and effectively during a prolonged crisis, with a full report to be published in the winter of 2026.
The covid-19 pandemic demonstrated the crucial importance of Governments across the UK working together while also respecting, and taking full account of, devolved areas of responsibility.
In support of a joined-up approach to preparedness, all four nations endorse the principles of preparedness set out in the strategy, while individual nations will have their own plans to implement their preparedness.
These principles include protecting those most at risk, with Governments committing to tailoring their capabilities to protect all communities and aiming to deliver an effective and equitable response to pandemics.
The strategy contains commitments across a number of areas that outline how the UK Government will improve pandemic preparedness, many of which have been informed and shaped by the initial findings of Exercise Pegasus. They include to:
Take a dynamic approach to ensure access to vaccines and therapeutics, and address the perceived barriers to the development of novel vaccines and therapeutics for priority pathogens.
Develop the ability to rapidly develop diagnostics for a broad range of pathogens, with scaled up in-house capacity for laboratory testing and whole genome sequencing.
Develop UK manufacturing capacity for vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.
Further strengthen surveillance systems to be comprehensive, activation-ready and drawing on diverse sample groups across settings and communities, so that we can detect threats, understand disease spread and enable the analytical capability to act effectively and equitably.
Replenish PPE stockpiles, refine plans for mobilising and distributing PPE, and prepare a cross-Government model for procuring and prioritising the distribution of PPE to critical workers in a pandemic.
Strengthen Government co-ordination mechanisms, drawing from early findings of Exercise Pegasus, including through regularly reviewing and exercising response plans. Guidance will be put in place for local responders.
Publish evidence reviews on the effectiveness of community protection measures and build a suite of measures to support decision making and prioritisation.
Expand communication channels for and improve our understanding of how to make communications relevant to different communities, and strengthen guidance provided to different sectors.
Review the data capabilities needed to support decision-making and evaluate the impacts of pandemic response measures, and enhance data sharing capabilities to enable faster and more transparent information sharing between organisations and with the public in a pandemic.
Co-develop an adult social care pandemic action plan to respond to future threats with sector partners. As part of this, we will focus on how best to support the wellbeing of those with care and support needs and how to improve the resilience and preparedness of the adult social care workforce.
Strengthen the flexibility and resilience of the healthcare workforce, improve the NHS baseline capabilities to manage infections, and develop plans to minimise the risk of cross-contamination across services and maintain continuity of routine care during pandemics.
By integrating our health, security and scientific capabilities, we will protect the NHS, safeguard our economy and save lives.
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