Partnering with Purpose
Summary
Strengthening national-level resilience in the UK through more dynamic public-private interactions
While acknowledging the need for a holistic view involving all sectors, this report, prepared by Marsh McLennan for the National Preparedness Commission, examines the opportunities for stronger interactions between public and private sectors. Founded on extensive desk research and interviews with resilience experts in the UK and abroad, it offers ideas for further exploration in the context of a much-needed debate, rather than landing on fixed conclusions and firm recommendations.
To be manageable, the project has had to make choices about scope. The paper therefore targets preparedness for and resilience to risks and possible crises that are of national concern due to their intensity, persistence, or likely evolution, rather than more routine problems.
Within that context, it speaks more to civil contingencies than to purely economic or financial disasters or, indeed, to security challenges such as terrorism, the protection of sensitive technologies, or military confrontation. It does not find space to consider industries that need to be nurtured or vital systems, such as healthcare, that are highly stretched. It is conscious of, without being explicit about, a shifting global environment — geopolitical, climate-related, technological — and the transformational national policy agenda that this demands. It looks more closely at central government capabilities and the firms that might provide the most strategic impact than at local government and the broader economy.