CSER’s Executive Director, Catherine Rhodes, gave evidence at the 3rd February 2021 session of the House of Lords Select Committee on Risk Assessment and Risk Planning, which focused on biological risks and biosecurity. The session mainly addressed questions around the implementation of the 2018 UK Biological Security Strategy, the UK’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the effectiveness of the UK’s current governance of biological risks. The UK Strategy is a useful document in principle, but greater attention is needed to implementation actions, and there is a clear need for updating the Strategy and some of the assumptions on which it is based. Catherine and the other witnesses pointed to various flaws in the UK’s pandemic response. She also emphasised the benefits of actions that will build resilience to a range of disease threats, biological risks and extreme risks more generally, including preparing for more than one crisis occurring simultaneously.
