Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (): I wish to inform the House
that I am publishing the UK Government Resilience Framework
further to the commitment made in the Integrated Review for
greater strategic planning in this vital area. With the
increasing volatility and interconnectedness of risks and
hazards, a strong resilience system is more important than ever.
In March 2021, the Integrated Review committed the government to
developing a new resilience strategy to strengthen our approach
to preparedness and civil protection. This new Framework delivers
on that commitment and takes a systemic approach to all national
threats.
The UK Government’s Resilience Framework articulates our ongoing
plan to strengthen the systems and capabilities that underpin the
UK’s resilience to all civil contingencies risks, from extreme
weather to supply chain challenges or public health emergencies.
It is ensuring that as well as managing immediate crises, we
maintain a greater collective focus on preparation and preventing
crises from happening in the first place.
The Framework is built around three core principles:
-
A shared understanding of the risks we face is
essential: it must underpin everything that we do to
prepare for and recover from crises;
-
Prevention rather than cure wherever
possible: resilience-building spans the whole risk
cycle so we must focus effort across the cycle, particularly
before crises happen; and
-
Resilience is a ‘whole of society’
endeavour: so we must be more transparent and
empower everyone to make a contribution.
Work is already underway across government to deliver on these
principles and act on lessons from recent crises, but the
Framework outlines our further ambition on priorities such as:
-
Becoming more transparent on the risks we face so that
businesses, charities, individuals and all levels of
government can prepare.
-
Protecting the most vulnerable in our communities and helping
responders to target support effectively before, during, and
after emergencies.
-
Strengthening accountability on resilience within government
and externally, including through an annual statement to
Parliament on civil contingency risk and resilience.
-
Ensuring that Local Resilience Forums have the resources,
capacity, information, and capability needed to plan for and
respond to the risks that we face.
-
Incentivising and supporting businesses, including operators
of Critical National Infrastructure, to strengthen their
resilience to real world risks.
Implementation of the proposals in the Framework has already
started. We have already made changes at the centre of government
to strengthen our approach to long-term resilience and short-term
crisis management, and to embed a culture of resilience in all
government departments. We have refreshed the classified National
Security Risk Assessment and will update the public version, the
National Risk Register, in the new year.
The Prime Minister has approved a new sub-committee of the
National Security Council on resilience which I will chair. I
look forward to establishing the committee in the new year, when
the Terms of Reference and membership will be published in the
usual way.
