Cabinet Office
INTRODUCTION/COVID CONTEXT
Four years ago almost to the day I was standing in 10 Downing Street giving the daily press conference during the early months of the COVID pandemic.
It was a terrifying time.
An unknown unforeseen entity had upended our way of life
was taking the lives of thousands
and endangering the livelihoods of millions more.
Britains response to such a pandemic and indeed our wider resilience was under the spotlight.
We quickly discovered where our strengths and weaknesses lay:
We turned to business and civil society to augment our capabilities from the ventilator challenge to the vaccine army.
While Rishi Sunak deployed our hard-won economic heft
to protect jobs, through the unprecedented furlough scheme
and to protect businesses and national institutions
including through the 2 billion cultural recovery fund that I led as Culture Secretary.
Ill leave it to others including the COVID Inquiry to make judgements on our relative performance
but I am hugely proud of the way the whole of society
the NHS, Government, businesses, civil society and individuals.
came together in response to the generational crisis of COVID.
We were able to effect the fastest vaccine rollout
a speedy end to lockdowns
and one of the quickest economic recoveries.
RESILIENCE SINCE COVID
Although the virus is still amongst us - and continues to affect particularly those with long Covid
we have, largely, returned to normality.
And as much as many of us would like to forget those dark days
it is right that Government ensures that we are prepared for the next crisis.
Thats why, on day one in this role, I turned my focus to exactly that.
In the last 18 months we have launched a new Resilience Framework outlining ambitious plans through to 2030
a dedicated Resilience Directorate constantly scanning the horizon for future threats
and an Emergency Alerts system ready to notify people if lives are at risk.
We have bolstered our Local Resilience Fora
developed a dedicated programme to assess and act early upon chronic risks
we have harnessed the transformational power of data through our world leading National Situation Centre
and published the most transparent-ever National Risk Register.
We have also recognised that crises have a disproportionate effect on vulnerable people
and so we are taking specific actions to better protect those groups.
The work we do is now independently reviewed and genuinely cutting-edge.
These reforms amount to the biggest overhaul of resilience in the UK for decades.
INCREASING THREATS
But as we have been increasing our defences, the threats we face have been proliferating.
Geopolitical tensions have risen to heights not seen for decades
climate change has compounded the risk from natural disasters
and as became all-too-real with COVID biosecurity hazards pose potentially existential threats to our lives and livelihoods.
All the while we become increasingly dependent on digital technology which brings extraordinary opportunities
but also creates new vulnerabilities and threats.
In particular, generative AI has lowered the barrier to entry for malign on-line actors
making the UKs leadership on frontier AI risks essential.
GOVERNMENT POSTURE/WHOLE OF SOCIETY
And as the Prime Minister said last week, more will change in the next five years than in the last thirty.
So it is right that we take stock and consider how we make sure we are as resilient as possible.
There are currently around 100 risks on the Governments risk register, ranging from cyber attacks to solar flares.
It is important at this stage to say that it is not the job of Government to be optimally prepared for just one of these risks manifesting
rather it is our job to position our finite resources so that we can prevent risks where we can
have plans in place for where we cannot
and are able to put those plans into practice as quickly as possible in a crisis.
Its a trade-off.
You cannot be fully prepared for one and sensibly prepared for all.
One thing that COVID made clear and that remains clear is that crises can hit us all
in ways we might not be able to anticipate
and that resilience requires us all to be ready.
It is this whole of society approach that ultimately saw us overcome the pandemic.
Now, none of us want to spend disproportionate time dwelling on the what ifs or the worst-case scenarios
but we do ourselves a disservice indeed we put ourselves at risk if we dont put sensible precautions in place.
And so today, I want to outline both the steps the Government is taking
and the steps we urge others to take, to strengthen our collective, national resilience.
INDIVIDUALS
That resilience begins at home.
After the reaction to my intervention on preparedness last Autumn
where I was painted as either alarmist
or as some sort of doomsday prepper
I want to take head on the suggestion that we shouldnt talk about this issue.
Who can forget the empty supermarket shelves in the early days of the pandemic?
And how many of us have since acted so wed be prepared if it happened again?
If there was a national power outage, how many of us have torches and batteries?
If the water went off, how many of us have a few bottles stored away?
And if there was a cyber attack, how many of us have the means to listen to the radio without mains power or wi-fi?
A poll released today by our hosts - the London Defence Conference - shows that just 15 per cent of people have an emergency supply kit in their homes
while more than 40 per cent of people do not have three days supplies of non-perishable food and water.
It is still the case, I make no apologies for reinforcing my recommendations that all households take a few minutes to consider their preparedness.
I am determined to make this as easy as possible, and to offer clear guidance.
This is not about stockpiling, this is about sensible safeguards.
And so, I can announce that today we are launching a new gov.uk website, based on the National Risk Register, that offers practical information for households to make those preparations.
This is about being prepared ahead of events
small things we can do today that might make a big difference tomorrow.
INTERNATIONAL COMPARATORS
Perhaps it is the legacy of the old stiff upper lip mentality that means it is unusual for a British minister to talk about resilience
certainly there is far more of a culture of doing so around the world.
In Finland they have a 72 hours campaign which encourages everyone to be self-sufficient in the first three days of any crisis
as well as an annual National Preparedness Day.
Meanwhile, I recently visited the earthquake preparedness centre in Tokyo
where they have an entire crisis management centre ready to go when the next big quake hits.
And although we are fortunate not to have to worry too much about the UKs earthquake resilience
I do want to embrace that spirit of openness around national preparedness
and to share lessons from our respective training and exercising programmes.
That is why I am pleased that resilience and crisis-management officials are actively engaging with their counterparts in these and other countries.
Indeed many of them are represented here at this conference.
Of course, when it comes to our international partnerships, the bedrock of our resilience is the NATO alliance
which is why our commitment to spend an additional 75 billion over the next six years - increasing defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2030
is so important.
It is also right that we consider our resilience and our defence together
and so - working with NATO and other partners - we are bringing forward a comprehensive National Defence and Resilience Plan
based on the very latest threat assessment and bringing together both civil and military planning.
TRAINING
Although crisis-response is so often considered through the prism of central government or individuals
the truth is, it is communities that make the difference between success and failure.
It is the response of public services, businesses, local resilience fora and the voluntary sector that determines the extent to which services, and economic output, are hit.
In these moments we look to local leaders
as much as to national government.
And we want to offer all of these individuals appropriate training.
We have already announced the new national Resilience Academy
which will see several thousand people trained to deal with crises
this year and next year.
And I can announce today that, for the first time, we will create bespoke training offers for both ministers and MPs
and I am looking forward to attending the early pilot of these courses.
EXERCISING
It