Government creates risk-mapping tool ahead of ‘largest ever national pandemic response exercise’

The Cabinet Office has unveiled a range of initiatives, including statistical tools, testing of emergency alerts, and training for resilience professionals to ensure the UK is ready for future crises

The government has created a new technology system which will enable departments to map major risks across the country.

The Risk Vulnerability Tool was jointly developed by the Cabinet Office and the Office for National Statistics. The digital service – which government claims “can be instantly shared across departments” and with devolved administrations – provides users with a map of the UK.

This image can be used to visualise “different risks that we face, and… where there are vulnerable groups who might be disproportionately impacted”.

The data system will allow these groups to be collated by various characteristics, including age, disability, and whether the provision of dedicated care is required.

The Cabinet Office claimed that the platform “will improve the government’s understanding of where disproportionately impacted groups are – ahead of and during crises – and enable targeted local support where required”.

The deployment of the vulnerability tool will help deliver the UK’s “largest ever national response exercise” that will take place in the autumn of this year and is intended to test the country’s preparedness for future pandemics.

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As part of this exercise government will also undertake another nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System. During this procedure, the system will be used to send a dummy message to all 87 million phones in use across the UK. During a similar test conducted in April 2023, a significant number of citizens connected to the Three mobile network did not receive the message.

But, since then, government claims that the alerting tool – which uses mobile masts to send extreme weather and other warning messages to users in the nearby area – “has been deployed successfully four times”.

The upcoming large-scale test is intended to further “ensure the system is functioning correctly… [and] will provide valuable operational lessons for both central government and telecommunication partners, giving an opportunity to solve any issues prior to a potential emergency activation”.

The date of the test will be announced in due course, and the initiative “will be advertised widely in advance”, the government said.

Other elements of pandemic readiness exercise will incorporate central government working alongside the emergency services and regional and devolved administrations. Beginning in April, the UK Resilience Academy will also undertake efforts to “to train over 4,000 people in resilience and emergency roles every year”.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden said: “We must learn lessons from the Covid pandemic as we cannot afford to make the same mistakes again. But we will plan in a way that recognises the next crisis may not be the same as the last. We agree with the inquiry that more needs to be done and are announcing measures to make sure that we are as prepared as possible for future pandemics. These changes will improve our resilience and preparedness and help to safeguard our citizens.”

The pandemic response test forms part of the government’s response to the initial report published in July last year by the Covid-19 Inquiry, which assessed national levels of resilience and preparedness for future crises.