In January 2025, 74 FTE staff were employed in the Resilience Directorate. In July 2025, the Resilience Directorate, the COBR Unit and the National Situation Centre merged into the new COBR Directorate. The responsibilities of the previous Resilience Directorate, and resilience more broadly, now sit across different Cabinet Office and UK Government teams, including the COBR Directorate. Therefore, no meaningful comparison can be made with pre-merger FTE numbers.

It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its Committees is not normally shared publicly.

It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its Committees is not normally shared publicly.

It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its Committees, and how often they have met, is not normally shared.

As a matter of policy, the Government does not comment on matters related to COBR.

However, we can confirm that Ministers and officials from across government took several measures in response to Storm Arwen.

The Defence Secretary oversaw the deployment of 297 military personnel to support civil authorities in the response. These personnel helped two Local Resilience Forums in the provision of welfare in northeast England, and assisted the Scottish Government in their response in the Grampian region.

The Prime Minister spoke to the chief executive of Northern Powergrid to discuss the ongoing work to restore power in the affected areas. He also spoke with local community leaders in Northumbria, Durham and Darlington, and Lt Col Mark Steed, who coordinated the military involvement in the response in northeast England.

Further to this, The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy gave a statement to Parliament at the time and The Minister for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change responded to an Urgent Question on 6 December.

Last week, the Government published an interim report on Storm Arwen review: Government publishes interim report on Storm Arwen review - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

As a matter of policy, the Government does not comment on the details of COBR meetings.

As a matter of policy, the Government does not comment on COBR meetings.

As a matter of policy, the government does not comment on COBR meetings.

With respect to the fuel crisis more generally, the Government acted swiftly to respond to the rapid increase in demand for fuel (observed from 24 September 2021) which caused shortages at forecourts around the UK. Regular ministerial and senior officials' meetings were convened, both before and after the peak in demand. These meetings were all supported by data feeds collated by departments that informed Government of consumer demand, forecourt stock levels, fuel delivery capabilities and other key metrics.

The government has tried and tested plans in place to manage fuel supply. The Government implemented a range of timely measures to resolve the situation, including deployment of military drivers to staff the Reserve Tanker Fleet, the activation of the Downstream Oil Protocol, the relaxation of drivers’ hours regulations and the roll out of short-term visas so that haulier firms could source trained drivers from overseas.

It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its Committees, and how often they have met, is not normally shared publicly.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by Chloe Smith MP to PQ 66203 on 2 July 2020.

The Government is working closely with local communities to undertake contingency planning so we can ensure the public are kept safe, and any tragic loss of life is handled with the utmost respect and care. As the Government continue to learn more about the outbreak, and potential future measures that may be needed, we will set out those plans to local resilience forums.

The planning assumptions critically depend on the response the Government takes to mitigate the effect of the outbreak, and we are working with the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and others to develop assumptions that reflect those actions and that those assumptions are shared with the local level as soon as possible.

The National Health Service COVID-19 Data Store securely assimilates and protects all of the accurate, real-time information in England necessary to inform strategic and operational decisions in response to the current pandemic. It is available to use for SAGE planning, and the information feeds into relevant COBRA dashboards. Furthermore, there have already been a number of NHS Data Store COVID-19 requests from local authorities submitted and approved for public health responses.

The Prime Minister and Cabinet have been regularly briefed on COVID-19 since the outbreak of the virus. These issues have also regularly been discussed at meetings of the COBR Committee. Additionally, since 16 March, a series of Cabinet Committees have convened to support the Government’s efforts. Specific information on the frequency and content of Cabinet Committees and other Ministerial meetings is not routinely disclosed.

It is a long established precedent that detailed information about internal discussions are not shared publicly.

Cross-party support is vital in relation to COVID-19. The Government continues to provide advice to hon. Members relating to COVID-19, including constituency related matters. COBRA meetings are emergency planning forums and the Government will continue to update parliamentarians as things progress, providing appropriate updates accordingly.

The Government does not intend to convene a COBRA meeting at this time to discuss knife crime. The Prime Minister hosted a Serious Youth Violence Summit at 10 Downing Street on 1 to 4 April, at which she brought together victims’ representatives, young people, community leaders, charities, faith leaders, businesses, police, health professionals, Ministers and others to focus on what more can be done.

The new Taskforce will be chaired by the Prime Minister, supported by a new, dedicated, serious violence team in the Cabinet Office, to support cross-departmental action on serious violence. This will ensure that there is a clear focus right across Government, and the necessary coordination across Departments, to ensure that everything possible is being done to tackle knife crime and serious violence.

The Review of National Security Assessment was completed in February 2017. The Joint Intelligence Organisation (JIO) is leading the implementation of the Review’s recommendations. We are not intending to publish the Review or a summary. However, the full Review will be passed to the Intelligence and Security Committee once it has been formed, in line with their role of Parliamentary oversight for the JIO. The ISC will be given regular updates by the JIO on the progress to implement the Review’s recommendations.