Making it happen: encouraging government action on preparedness and resilience

Roger Gomm examines the new report, ‘Making it happen: encouraging government action on preparedness and resilience,’ by Lord Toby Harris of the UK National Preparedness Commission

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Lord Toby Harris has issued a brief report titled ‘Making it happen: encouraging government action on preparedness and resilience’ as part of his work on the UK National Preparedness Commission (NPC), writes Roger Gomm

Harris, a former leader of Haringey Borough Council and Chair of the Association of London Government, was elevated to the House of Lords in 1998 and is Chair of the Labour Peers. Among other things, he is Chair of the NPC, which was created in response to the UK Government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic with a mission to promote better preparedness for a major crisis or incident in the UK. 

Today, the commission boasts over 50 influential advisers who together produce a series of thought-provoking reports on ways to build a truly resilient nation. As our world continues to experience volatile and interconnected crises, with forecasts of further drastic consequences from climate risks as we head towards 2050, we all need to develop better resilience.

This short paper examines the factors that make it difficult for governments to address preparedness and resilience, looks at the historical context, and makes some suggestions as to how long-term preparedness and resilience might be hard-wired into the government machine and political thinking. These suggestions are part of what is needed to create an environment that will foster a ‘whole of government’ approach and a ‘whole of society’ response. These, in turn, will enable individual citizens and their communities to become better equipped to withstand and respond to whatever threats may materialise.

The report acknowledges that the first duty of any government is to protect its citizens. Part of that must be to ensure that nations are able to anticipate the types of crises that may arise and are adequately prepared for them, and that society as a whole is resilient in its ability to respond to the unexpected.  

Yet the threats we face are many and varied. Indeed, it is now said that we live in a turbulent, uncertain, novel and ambiguous (TUNA) world (Strategic Reframing: The Oxford Scenario Planning Approach, Rafael Ramirez and Angela Wilkinson, Oxford University Press, March 2016). Global geopolitics is volatile in the context of a changing world order, with post-war certainties rapidly eroding. And our society is facing multiple threats and hazards that are unpredictable, new to us, and – because of the interconnectedness of modern society – risks to which we are increasingly vulnerable, with consequences that may be broader and deeper than we might imagine.

Against this background, the UK has an ageing infrastructure – much of it constructed in the 19th and early 20th centuries – that is often inadequately repaired and maintained. Moreover, as the Council for Science and Technology pointed out in 2009, this infrastructure is highly fragmented in terms of both delivery and governance and is significantly vulnerable to systemic failure. Since then, maintenance backlogs have been allowed to grow and this infrastructure was designed to cope within the parameters of a climate far more favourable than the one we are now experiencing. 

The report contains seven recommendations that they believe are necessary to ensure that we build preparedness and resilience. They include: a National Resilience Act; establishing a Joint Committee on National Preparedness and Resilience; annual scrutiny by Parliament; ensuring that long-term requirements for preparedness and resilience are given due weight in financial decisions; and an audit process of the preparedness and resilience of public bodies. But they are not sufficient, as society as a whole must be behind the change of approach that is needed, and the country will require mature political leadership to deliver a future where, as a nation, we, our children and our grandchildren can feel secure that we are properly prepared and resilient against the risks and threats that we face.  

These recommendations are intended to provoke a discussion as to how best we can create the framework and conditions for a prepared and resilient future.

This report is a good and easy read for those engaged in emergency preparedness and resilience. You can find it here: https://nationalpreparednesscommission.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/NPC_Making-It-Happen.pdf