Measures include enhancing access to essential vaccines and therapeutics, improving pandemic surveillance systems and expanding ability to roll out testing to the whole population.

Minister of health for public health and prevention, Sharon Hodgson, said: ‘This strategy represents a serious, long-term commitment to protecting the public from future health threats. We learnt hard lessons from Covid-19, and it is our responsibility to act on them.

‘Informed by Exercise Pegasus — the largest pandemic exercise in UK history — this strategy strengthens our capabilities, allowing us to respond faster and more effectively when the next health threat emerges. The public deserves nothing less.'

The strategy outlines concrete action already taken across government to embed lessons from Covid, including:

• PPE stockpiles will continue to be replenished with a variety of products and sizes
• departmental pandemic response plans will be reviewed to ensure Government services and critical national infrastructure can be maintained effectively in a pandemic
• an ‘All Pandemic Hazards Bill' will be drafted to ensure the Government has legislative options ready to review and introduce as necessary in response to a range of pathogens
• UKHSA will build a new set of services to manage large scale testing, contact tracing and other scaled public health response measures
• chemicals and equipment stockpiles needed for testing will be built up further to protect against supply risks that could develop in the early stages of a pandemic
• data requirements to support decision-making will be reviewed to ensure information needed in a pandemic response is available, transparent, and can be shared quickly between organisations and with the public.

The new strategy replaces a previous strategy for Pandemic Influenza published in 2011 and builds on wider reforms taking place through the 10-Year Health Plan.