(C) OpenDemocracy This story was originally published by OpenDemocracy and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Covid inquiry hears how Welsh councils were shut out of emergency planning [1] [] Date: 2024-03 Britain’s plans for dealing with nuclear attacks, airline crashes, pandemics and other emergencies are in dire need of a radical overhaul, the Covid-19 inquiry has heard. The Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) was passed by the Blair government following a series of crises, including fuel protests, severe floods and the foot and mouth disease outbreak. But despite the intention to overhaul legislation rooted in the Cold War, those working at the coalface of the UK’s response to coronavirus have insisted it remains stuck in the past and unsuited to the realities on the ground. Giving evidence to the inquiry today, Chris Llewelyn, chief executive of the Welsh Local Government Association, called for it to be reviewed “urgently”. Get our free Daily Email Get one whole story, direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up now “If you look at the history of emergency planning, going back to the Second World War, the days of Dad’s Army, they responded to the challenges at the time,” he said. “During the Second World War, it was a threat of invasion. After 1948, it was the threat of nuclear attack and the Cold War. “When the Civil Contingencies Act came in, it was because there was a perception that we will have major incidents, one-off events, floods, airline crashes, train crashes, and so on. “At the time, nobody envisaged a global pandemic of the nature and scale of the Covid crisis. “I think we need to look at it again. I don’t think it’s fit for purpose. It isn’t appropriate for a crisis of the duration of Covid.” Following a hiatus, the inquiry restarted in Cardiff last week with a module focusing on the handling of the pandemic in Wales. Attention has so far been on the actions of the devolved administration, which has faced criticism for its attitude to social care and questions over its policy divergences from guidelines in England. But Llewelyn was keen to hone in on the role of local government and his belief that future plans must pay more attention to the role of councils. He added: “It [the CCA] doesn't give elected members at any level enough of an involvement in the process.” Heath Hallett, the inquiry chair, called it “deja vu” to once again hear about the importance of local government to emergency response, after it featured in the inquiry’s opening module focusing on pandemic preparedness. She said: “I just find it extraordinary that it seems to be a common theme around the place, not just Wales, that local authorities aren’t sufficiently involved in something that they're going to have to deliver, if the worst hits us.” The Covid inquiry heard last year how local councils – which were at the forefront of responding to the crisis – had been kept in the dark about the outcomes of pandemic planning exercises in the years before coronavirus hit. During one of his own evidence sessions last year, disgraced former health secretary Matt Hancock attempted to deflect blame for poor pandemic planning onto local authorities. Speaking this afternoon after Llewelyn, Reg Kilpatrick, director general of Wales’s Covid Recovery and Local Government Group, admitted engagement between the Welsh government and councils “could have been better”. He added: “It most certainly would have been better, had we have had more information to share from the UK. “We were quite constrained in what we could say because the flow from the UK government was, at times, limited.” The inquiry continues. openDemocracy is fundraising to pay reporters to cover every day of the public hearings. Please support us by donating here. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/covid-inquiry-wales-local-councils-civil-contingencies-act-pandemic-planning/ Published and (C) by OpenDemocracy Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/