The government’s crisis response is gaining pace – but so is the crisis

There can be a sense of permacrisis within government, with conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine coming within a few years of a global pandemic. Late nights and crisis meetings will not be unfamiliar to many in Whitehall. The government response to the conflict in the Middle East has now started to properly kick into gear but the crisis continues to gain pace, threatening to spill over into a full domestic crisis.

Last year, we published a report offering ministers advice on how they can be most effective during a crisis. A year on, our new paper, Policy making in a crisis: A civil servant’s guide, sets out how the civil service should best set itself up to work under pressure.

1.    Innovate but learn from past crises

Crises can create the space and necessity to act differently and try new approaches – which can produce excellent results. But governments have often found it more difficult to learn lessons from previous crises. The announcement this week of reforms to energy markets, including an increase in the windfall tax rate on older renewables and voluntary long term fixed contracts for those generators, shows the government’s willingness to try out novel approaches. ¹⁰ https://www.gov.uk/government/news/decisive-action-to-break-influence-of-gas-on-electricity-prices

But it should also learn the right lessons from the last energy crisis. In 2022 the then government was unable to target support for billpayers because it did not have the data needed to work out who was most in need of support. The current government had started trialling new approaches to rectify that, launching a ‘kickstarter’ programme to find a solution but had not solved the issue when the conflict in the Middle East began. ¹¹ https://www.gov.uk/government/news/targeted-energy-bill-support-and-simpler-access-to-legal-guidance-among-plans-to-put-data-to-work-to-improve-lives  It should learn from this failure and make sure important issues do not get lost in the transition to ‘business as usual’ this time.

2.    Hand over important but non-urgent issues to relevant policy teams 

The UK’s crisis response structures were designed to manage short, sharp disruptions and political incentives can also point towards a focus on immediate issues. This is essential for demonstrating ‘grip’ in the short term but can make it hard for officials to balance immediate advice with future needs. During the current crisis, the government needs to ensure that focus on the short-term response does not crowd out thinking about the longer-term issues that are emerging.

Most notably, this crisis has raised questions about energy security, exposing the UK’s reliance on natural gas imports and comparatively limited gas storage. It has also shown its high levels of exposure to spikes in global gas markets in the absence of alternative sources of dispatchable capacity or significant energy storage. The government should put plans in place now for which teams will pick up these issues to make sure the UK is not facing the same problems when the next crisis hits. Ministerial leadership on this issue will be key to maintain momentum.

3.    Communicate clearly

The Institute has previously argued that the government’s messaging on the crisis risks creating confusion and uncertainty. In any crisis, the media and parliament will look to ministers to set out what is happening and what the public are expected to do. The Government Communications Service has a range of guidance on crisis communication, including the Krebs framework ¹² Cabinet Office, Crisis Communication: A behavioural approach, Government Communications Service, 2022, retrieved 22 April 2026, https://gcs.civilservice.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Behavioural_science_ guide_to_Crisis_Communications_PDF_Official.pdf  which sets out considerations on how and what to communicate during a crisis.

One key consideration is who is the correct messenger – sometimes ministers may be the right person, but at other times, as happened during the pandemic, they will be accompanied by experts or operational leaders. In the current crisis, ensuring that the message is joined up between government and the fuel industry will be key to maintaining credibility and public trust.

And while communications with the public, via the media, will be front of ministers’ minds, ensuring that parliament is kept up to date is also important. Scrutiny of decisions – which in a crisis are often made more quickly and with less information than normal – helps improve outcomes. And by ensuring that they keep MPs up to date, ministers will be able to generate more support for any difficult choices they have to make down the line.

The government should be preparing now for a longer-running crisis

The government has done well to ensure its initial response measures align with its long term aims – resisting calls for universal financial support (as in 2022) in favour of measures to encourage electrification and energy efficiency. But the crisis is showing little sign of ending and that resolve is likely to be tested if the situation worsens.

It needs to make sure that it learns the lessons of previous crises as well as innovating, does not lose sight of longer-term issues, and improves communication of its plans. Officials working on the crisis response can find our guide to effective policy making in a crisis here.