Wales Resilience Partnership meeting: 16 July 2025

The Chair welcomed members to the first meeting of the reconstituted Wales Resilience Partnership.

The Chair opened the meeting referencing the publication of the Wales Resilience Framework and the first meeting of the reconstituted Wales Resilience Forum in May. The Chair highlighted recent Welsh Government publications including the First Minister’s written statement to the Senedd on progress against the COVID-19 Inquiry Module 1 report and the Welsh Governments response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report. The Partnership also heard an overview of staff changes within Welsh Government and the Chair shared reflections from the recent meeting of Welsh Government’s senior oversight group on civil contingencies.

A revised terms of reference for the Partnership was considered by members, which described a clear purpose for the Partnership in supporting delivery of actions within the Wales Resilience Framework Delivery Plan. Members noted their roles and responsibilities and agreed to meet 4 times a year. To promote transparency, members agreed for a summary of each meeting to be published on the Welsh Government website.

Decision: Terms of reference were agreed in principle with members asked to submit any refinements for inclusion before they are published.

The Partnership was provided with an overview of the Wales Resilience Framework and its importance in setting the vision and strategic direction for resilience in Wales.

Members heard how the accompanying Delivery Plan outlined specific actions to be taken in the short, medium, and long term. Members recognised how the work programme confirmed the partnership’s role in taking forward actions in the Delivery Plan, alongside work by the Welsh Government and Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) in Wales.

The Partnership welcomed the opportunity to comment on the draft work programme and recognised how actions had started to identify thematic areas for delivery. As part of the ongoing discussion, members recognised their role in owning the work programme and agreed to form a working group (comprised from the Partnership membership) to enhance the work programme further. Volunteers were sought to form the working group, with an enhanced work programme to be presented at the next meeting for partnership endorsement.

Decision: A working group to be formed (from the Partnership membership) to enhance the work programme.

Considering the previous discussions on the draft work programme, the operational subgroups were not considered in their entirety. However, the operational subgroup structure was acknowledged as a flexible model for operational delivery.

Members agreed for the working group tasked with enhancing the work programme to also consider what operational subgroups would be needed to underpin delivery.

It was agreed that existing pan-Wales groups would continue to meet, until the work programme had been agreed. Members acknowledged that respective terms of reference for these groups would need to be reviewed in line with the work programme.

Decision: Existing pan-Wales groups would continue to meet until the work programme has been agreed.

An overview of recent UK Government publications was provided including the UK Government Resilience Action Plan, the National Security Review, the Strategic Defence Review and the Chronic Risks Analysis. Members were also made aware of the upcoming refresh of the UK Cyber Security Strategy.

Members were reminded of a planned test of the UK Emergency Alert System on 7 September and details were shared of some recent podcasts which touched on the resilience agenda and may be of interest.

The next meeting will take place on 28 October 2025.