Looking at the course of previous pandemics, Covid-19 has not been so different. As Lord Harris explains, pandemic flu has been in the top tier of the UK’s National Risk Register since it was first published a decade ago, yet it was not assigned with a sufficiently serious level of risk. He argues there needs to be a process of continually learning from experience and using that learning to strengthen the organisation ready for the next crisis – as well as the promotion of better preparedness in the UK for a major crisis or incident.