UK's pandemic planning an 'astonishing failure'

The Commons Public Accounts Committee has labelled the government's failure to plan for the economic impact of a pandemic as ‘astonishing’.

MPs, who questions the Treasury’s decision to wait until mid-March before deciding on the economic support schemes it would put in place, said the economic reaction to coronavirus was rushed and the impact could be ‘long-term’. The first case of coronavirus was confirmed in England in January.

The Public Accounts Committee’s report said the government needed to learn lessons from its response and ‘ensure it doesn't repeat its mistakes again in the event of a second spike in infections - or another novel disease outbreak’.

MPs questioned why there was no economic equivalent to Exercise Cygnus, the 2016 simulation of an international flu outbreak that involved 950 emergency planning officials. The report says that key government ministries, such as the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, were not made aware that Cygnus had taken place and so had little idea of the possible impact of a major outbreak.

Meg Hillier, the chair of the committee, said: “The economic strategy was of necessity rushed and reactive, initially a one-size-fits-all response that’s leaving people – and whole sectors of the economy – behind,” she said. “A competent government does not run a country on the hoof, and it will not steer us through this global health and economic crisis that way. Government needs to take honest stock now, learning, and rapidly changing course where necessary. We need reassurance that there is serious thinking behind how to manage a second spike.”