![]() The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) is a sub-committee of COBR. They have a standing role to plan for possible emergencies, support ministers through any crisis and then conduct lessons learned on how to improve preparedness. It was developed following a review of civil contingency preparedness after the 2001 Foot and Mouth crisis. The CCS are responsible for high level emergency planning including maintaining the National Risk Register, coordinating cross government resilience and other contingency planning for major emergencies. How is COBR supported?ĬOBR is supported by the Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS), which is part of the National Security Secretariat in the Cabinet Office. Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, was the first leader of a non-national level of government to attend a COBR meeting on Covid-19, on 9 April 2020. ![]() ĭuring the Covid-19 pandemic, ministers from the devolved administrations were invited to COBR, although the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, did not attend the first few meetings. Michael Gove, then minister for the Cabinet Office and chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, also on occasion chaired COBR meetings, mostly during the second wave of Covid-19 which started in September 2021. While Johnson was ill with Covid in late March/early April 2020, then foreign secretary Dominic Raab chaired COBR in his place. The prime minister, Boris Johnson, did not attend the first five Covid-related COBR meetings in January and February 2020. The meetings are often chaired by the most senior minister in the room, and the prime minister if he or she is attending, but not always. It will be a mixture of officials and agency personnel, alongside ministers, from relevant departments and agencies. The composition of any COBR meeting will depend on the situation being discussed. In 2020, COBR met 20 times to discuss the Covid-19 pandemic, first meeting in January 2020, before any cases had been recorded in the UK. Convening it can sometimes be a way for prime ministers to indicate that they are taking action and have a grip of the situation. Following the 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre, the cabinet secretary Richard Wilson chaired COBR until ministers and then the prime minister were able to attend. Officials will convene a committee and use the emergency situation centre in the absence of ministers when a situation requires. When does COBR meet?ĬOBR meets during any crisis or emergency where it is warranted, but this can be ad hoc and the timing of meetings may be dependent on ministerial availability. Following the 9/11 attacks the committee was used to take the decision to immediately close UK airspace. COBR’s purpose is to keep ministers appraised of the situation, to ensure that the wider response of the government is coordinated, to record and disseminate key decisions and updates to all relevant ministers and officials, and to provide ministers and the prime minister with up to date information on the situation for any decisions that they may need to make. The 2004 Civil Contingencies Act set out responsibilities at local, national, agency and departmental level for different kinds of emergencies. Depending on the emergency, officials and agencies most closely involved will already be handling many of the immediate decisions – for example, in a terrorist attack the emergency services and security services will already be responding, while in the event of floods or other natural disaster the Environment Agency, local authorities and emergency services will be coordinating immediate action. What does COBR do?ĬOBR’s purpose is high-level co-ordination and decision making in the event of major or catastrophic emergencies, including natural disasters, terrorist attacks and major industrial accidents or disruption. It may have been confused with a Treasury briefing room A or because it made the acronym more obvious and memorable. The origins of it being referred to as Cabinet Office Briefing Room A (COBRA) are not clear. Why is it sometimes called COBRA?ĬOBR began life as an emergency situation centre which was developed as part of a review of civil contingency machinery following the 1972 miners’ strike. COBR is the acronym for Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms, a series of rooms located in the Cabinet Office in 70 Whitehall. Its purpose is to coordinate different departments and agencies in response to such emergencies. COBR or COBRA is shorthand for the Civil Contingencies Committee that is convened to handle matters of national emergency or major disruption.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |