Department of Health and Social Care: National Security
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 88 of the policy paper entitled UK Government Resilience Action Plan, published on 14 July 2025, how many meetings have been attended by civil servants within their Department in relation to the Home Defence Programme; which directorate in the Department owns the Departmental contribution to the Home Defence Programme; and what the job title is of the civil servant leading and cohering the Departmental contribution to the Home Defence Programme.
Answered by Mrs Sharon Hodgson
The Resilience Action Plan sets out the Government’s strategic approach to how we will strengthen our domestic resilience and invest to protect the nation. Department officials regularly attend meetings to discuss the implementation of the Resilience Action Plan as well as matters of national security and defence.
The Department is actively contributing to this work. This includes ensuring the health sector has flexible, adaptable, and scalable capabilities that can respond to a range of threats. These capabilities include equipment, for instance stockpiles and countermeasures, including medicines and medical equipment, skilled people, such as clinicians and public health staff, and infrastructure, for instance technology, diagnostics, testing.
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