Exercise Cygnus report

[Fambo Number Mive]

The government is on a collision course with the information commissioner over its refusal to publish a confidential report warning that the UK's health system could not cope in a pandemic.

In a dramatic move, the Information Commissioner's Office has ordered the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to hand over the report into Exercise Cygnus, or explain its decision for refusing, by 23 October.

Cygnus, a three-day simulation exercise in 2016, assessed the UK's ability to cope with an influenza pandemic, but its findings are pertinent to the current coronavirus crisis.

Lawyers for an NHS doctor, Moosa Qureshi, who made a freedom of information request six months ago demanding to see the Cygnus report, have accused the government of deliberately delaying its response to his request. There is speculation that this is because the report's contents would confirm that the government had failed to learn the lessons from its own exercise...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/11/whitehall-told-to-release-secret-2016-files-on-uk-pandemic-risks

Expect Tory apologists to say "it was a different government" despite the same party having been in power then and most of the current cabinet having been ministers then.