Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they took following the conclusion of Exercise Cygnus to ensure that the potential for staff absences to reach 50 per cent was built into business continuity planning in the event of a pandemic.

I refer the noble Lord to published documents, including for example the modelling of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling from November 2018, which detailed a reasonable worst case scenario that up to 50% of the population could be ill - not that staff absences could reach 50%.