The government has updated its crisis response handbook for the first time in more than a decade, making major changes to the guidance for how a crisis is led from the centre of government.
The update sets out a greater role for the Cabinet Office in co-ordinating central government in a whole-system crisis, as signalled by the government earlier this year in its response to the Covid-19 Inquiry’s first report.
The Covid-19 Inquiry report called for the government to abolish the lead government department (LGD) model for whole-system emergencies and give the Cabinet Office the leadership role.
In its response in January, the government said it “agrees with the need for a greater Cabinet Office role for whole-system civil emergencies” but that this should be “in addition to the lead government department model which retains an essential role in preparedness and resilience”.
The government said it would retain the LGD model for catastrophic risks, but give a greater role for the Cabinet Office in driving work to improve preparedness and resilience. It added that the Cabinet Office would be "expected to provide leadership in responding to catastrophic risks should they arise, working closely with the LGD to coordinate a whole-system response".
The refreshed guidance, The Amber Book: Managing Crisis in Central Government, says: “Where a crisis is so serious as to have whole-of-system implications, the Cabinet Office (in its role as the department which supports the prime minister and the effective running of government) will take on a leadership role for the response."
It describes these types of crises as events which “due to the scale and complexity, can have catastrophic and cascading consequences which require leadership from the centre and a monumental response effort from the whole-of-government and wider society for an extended period of time to manage the situation effectively”.
In these situations, it says the Cabinet Office will have responsibility for co-ordinating the central government response to the acute crisis and for managing the central crisis facility Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBR).
The Amber Book says an LGD will remain in place “to provide policy expertise and capabilities to lead the response to the primary impact of the crisis”.
“Other government departments will also be responsible for responding to issues within their sphere of responsibility,” it adds.
The handbook also sets out a clearer delineation of roles and responsibilities during the response to a whole-system crisis.
The lead minister responsible for a crisis response will now either be the prime minister or another minister with delegated authority and that they will be accountable for co-ordinating ministerial decision-making.
And the lead minister will be supported by a crisis senior responsible owner (SRO), who will act as their principal adviser on the response and will be responsible for ensuring government decision-making is timely, accurate and co-ordinated.
The crisis SRO will be supported by the COBR response director (who has responsibility for the COBR response structure) and department leads (who lead their department’s strategic contribution to the response).
When it is not clear who the crisis SRO is, the cabinet secretary will by default take on the role until they appoint another official, the new guidance states.
The refreshed handbook also contains new guidance for the “rare cases where an emergency occurs and it is unclear which department should be the LGD, such as instances where the primary consequence of an emergency changes quickly, for example where initial fuel supply disruption led to public disorder”.
In these circumstances, the Amber Book says it is the responsibility of the Cabinet Office to advise the Prime Minister’s Office on which department is the most appropriate to take on the role of LGD. And it says that the Cabinet Office will co-ordinate the central government response, leading where necessary, until an LGD is confirmed.
The previous guidance said that where it was not clear who should lead the response, the prime minister may appoint a minister to lead in a non-departmental capacity, or ask a department to lead on an issue that might not normally fall to them, with support from the Cabinet Office.
The update to the handbook was a commitment as part of the government's response to the Covid-19 Inquiry Module 1 report.