The head of Parliament’s financial watchdog revealed she was “gobsmacked” after top civil servants admitted they did no planning for the risk of economic catastrophe caused by a pandemic hitting the UK.
Ministers and civil servants took part in exercises testing the potential risk of a flu-based pandemic on the NHS and councils, codenamed Cygnet, but not on British businesses.
The Cabinet Office’s top civil servant Alex Chisholm said he was “not aware” of any economic contingency panning while his counterpart at the Treasury, Tom Scholar, said its response was only developed in the weeks running up to the March Budget.