Policy paper

UK Resilience Forum fifth meeting: 6 February 2024

Updated 13 February 2024

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

Representatives from the following organisations were in attendance:

• British Red Cross
• Cabinet Office
• Citizens Advice Bureau
• Confederation of British Industry (CBI)
• Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
• Disabled People’s Organisations representative from Buckinghamshire Disability Service
• Energy Networks Association
• Environment Agency
• Government Office for Science
• Ministry of Defence
• National Cyber Security Centre
• National Emergencies Trust
• National Fire Chiefs Council
• Network Rail
• NHS England
• Scottish Government
• Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE)
• Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership (VCSEP)
• Water Industry Platinum Group (WIPG)
• Welsh Government

Invited organisations unable to attend:

• Electronic Communications - Resilience and Response Group (EC-RRG)
• Equality and Human Rights Commission
• Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA)
• National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC)
• Northern Ireland Executive
• Local Resilience Forums and Ambulance representative from Thames Valley Local Resilience Forum / South Central Ambulance Service

The Deputy Prime Minister, The Rt. Hon. Oliver Dowden CBE MP and Minister for the Cabinet Office, The Rt. Hon. John Glen chaired the fifth meeting of the UK Resilience Forum.

The Deputy Prime Minister opened the meeting by providing an overview of milestones delivered over the course of 2023 in respect to strengthening UK resilience, including: the joint publication of the expanded National Risk Register alongside updated UK National Responsibilities for Risk Identification, Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery, and his delivery of the inaugural Annual Statement to Parliament on Civil Contingencies Risk and the Government’s Performance on Resilience. The Deputy Prime Minister also highlighted the vital role that the UK Resilience Forum plays in providing a mechanism for actors from across the resilience system to share information on civil contingencies risks, and in driving a whole of society approach to resilience. In that spirit, he welcomed the new member of the Forum, representing Disabled Peoples Organisations to ensure that disabled peoples’ lived experiences are reflected in resilience planning.

The Deputy Director for Cyber and Technology Policy in the Cabinet Office provided a summary of recent policy developments in respect to the implementation of the National Cyber Strategy and broader work to strengthen UK resilience to cyber threats, including: steps taken to strengthen the cyber resilience of critical national infrastructure and the private sector; the publication of initiatives to reduce the burden on individual citizens such as the Home Office’s Fraud Strategy and the Cyber Aware Campaign; the launch of GovAssure as a transformational cyber assurance regime for the whole of Government, alongside the soft launch of the Government Cyber Coordination Centre (GC3) to provide leadership for cross-government cyber resilience activity; and the launch of the Secure by Design Framework to ensure the future resilience of public services. The Deputy Director for Critical National Infrastructure in the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), provided an overview of the NCSC’s 24/7 incident response capability and reinforced the importance of enabling a whole of society approach to resilience by highlighting the range of information, guidance, training and incident reporting routes which are open to UK organisations.

The Deputy Prime Minister summarised that cyber related threats represented one of the most serious risks we face and emphasised the need for continued capability building and exercising between partners.

In discussion, the following points were made:

• Work had been progressing across sectors on strengthening cyber resilience, including the development of campaigns to improve basic cyber hygiene, organisations’ procurement of NCSC approved cyber security providers and organisations’ own internal audits and testing of their resilience to cyber threats.
• Managing cyber risk was of high strategic importance across sectors. This was reflected in organisations’ governance structures and their investment in cyber skills.
• There was general support for the ‘Secure by Design’ approach, and attendees highlighted the value of the range of guidance, tools and training offered by the NCSC and promoted by government, law enforcement and industry partners.
• Attendees raised the importance of collaboration on threat sharing and good practice; managing vulnerabilities in the supply chain; training and exercising and not being complacent as ongoing effort required.
• The need for a whole of society approach recognising the societal impacts and interconnectivity of systems was also underlined. This included the role of the voluntary and community sector; a potentially stronger role for regulators and the need to tackle misinformation.

The Director of the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBR) Unit provided an overview of central government’s response to incidents which had taken place since the last UK Resilience Forum in July 2023. The COBR Unit had worked across government to: coordinate the response to Greek wildfires to ensure the safety and safe return of British Nationals; utilise a new Heat Health Alerts system in response to extreme temperatures in parts of the UK during the summer of 2023; enacted contingency plans during periods of widespread industrial action; respond to severe storms and flooding across the country and support the Government’s response to a volatile international landscape. It was noted that, particularly in response to severe weather, national and local systems continued to work effectively.

The Director of the COBR Unit then presented a Risk Forward Look of significant risks which could occur over the next six months, including: severe weather-related hazards such as flooding; pressures on the health sector; industrial action in the health and rail sectors; public order risks relating to disruptive activity by environmental and animal rights groups, as well as protests driven by international conflicts. It was noted that the systemic risks which have faced the UK in previous years, such as the risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and EU exit to supply chains, have eased. The volatile international landscape remained challenging in terms of a sudden materialisation of a systemic risk.

Forum members were invited to share their views on the risk facing the UK. In discussion, the following points were made:

• It was noted that severe weather was likely to break records in terms of the number of named storms and wettest days in a long time but had not met the level of disruption seen in previous years.
• Members noted that, in response to severe weather, local systems continued to work effectively and that the response generally improved throughout the winter.
• It was noted that, owing to recent investment in flood defences, 240,000 properties were successfully protected. However, further collaboration was required to ensure that flood risk communications reach vulnerable groups and to enable an effective cross-sector response, particularly during the recovery phase.
• Attendees highlighted that they conducted 6 month risk outlooks within their own organisational contexts and agreed with the risk profile described.

The Head of Resilience in the Cabinet Office gave an overview of the immediate next stage deliverables in respect to the UK Government Resilience Framework and strengthening UK resilience, including: the launch of a unified government resilience website with practical advice on how individuals and households can strengthen their resilience; a volunteering index to provide a one-stop-shop of resilience related volunteering opportunities; updated guidance to support the identification of vulnerable persons during an emergency, alongside an off-the-shelf exercise for Local Resilience Forums to support local responders’ planning for vulnerable persons; the development of a gold standard UK Resilience Academy; further training across Critical National Infrastructure and business regulators, and the development of a risk-focused sub-group to the UK Resilience Forum. In addition, the Disability Action Plan, which set out 32 steps the Government was taking to make the UK the most accessible place for disabled people to live and included a commitment to further integrate the lived experiences of disabled people into resilience planning,  had been published on the 5 February.

The Minister for the Cabinet Office ended the meeting by thanking members for their attendance, noting their valuable contributions, and affirmed the Government’s commitment to continued engagement with stakeholders on resilience matters. It was agreed that the Government’s plan to develop a UK Resilience Academy would feature on the agenda for the next UK Resilience Forum in approximately 6 months’ time.