COBR (COBRA)

What is COBR or COBRA?

COBR is shorthand for the cabinet committee that is convened to handle matters of national emergency or major disruption. Its purpose is to coordinate different departments and agencies in response to such emergencies. COBR is many things, including a series of rooms located in the Cabinet Office in 70 Whitehall and the team that supports high-level co-ordination and decision making in a crisis.

It has sometimes, incorrectly, been referred to as COBRA - Cabinet Office Briefing Room A. The origins of it being referred to as Cabinet Office Briefing Room A (COBRA) are not clear. It may have been confused with a Treasury briefing room A or because it made the acronym more obvious and memorable. 

When was COBR first formed?

COBR began life as an emergency situation centre which was developed as part of a review of civil contingency machinery following the 1972 miners’ strike. It was first used as a committee during the Munich Olympics’ hostage incident which took place that summer. Since then, it has continued to meet whenever the UK government needs to have oversight of the most serious incidents.

What does COBR do?

COBR’s purpose is high-level co-ordination and decision making in the event of major or catastrophic emergencies, including natural disasters, terrorist attacks and major industrial accidents or disruption. Depending on the emergency, officials and agencies most closely involved will already be handling many of the immediate decisions – for example, in a terrorist attack the emergency services and security services will already be responding, while in the event of floods or other natural disaster the Environment Agency, local authorities and emergency services will be coordinating immediate action. For decisions that must be made by government, COBR meets to facilitate this process.

The 2004 Civil Contingencies Act set out responsibilities at local, national, agency and departmental level for different kinds of emergencies. COBR’s purpose is to keep ministers appraised of the situation, to ensure that the wider response of the government is coordinated, to take and disseminate key decisions and update all relevant ministers and officials and to agree on a communications strategy. For example, following the 9/11 attacks the committee was used to take the decision to immediately close UK airspace.

When does COBR meet?

COBR meets during any crisis or emergency where it is warranted, but this can be ad hoc and the timing of meetings is dependent on ministerial availability. Officials will convene a committee and use the emergency situation centre in the absence of ministers when the situation requires. Following the 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre, the cabinet secretary Richard Wilson chaired COBR until ministers and then the prime minister were able to attend. Convening it can sometimes be a way for the government to indicate that they are taking action and have a grip of the situation. 

The Covid-19 pandemic precipitated the largest number of COBRs of any incident. Between January and April 2020, at least 16 COBR meetings took place as the Covid pandemic intensified ¹³ The Scottish Parliament, ‘Question reference: S5W-28727', 27 April 2020, retrieved 17 April 2025, https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/questions-and-answers/question?ref=S5W-28727  and, more recently, Keir Starmer chaired COBR in response to riots in the summer of 2024. ¹⁴ Mason, R and Dodd, V, ‘Starmer to lead Cobra meeting after vowing swift justice awaits “far-right thugs”’, The Guardian, 04 August 2024, retrieved 16 April 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/04/far-right-thugs-will-be-swiftly-brought-to-justice-keir-starmer-vows

Who sits on COBR?

The composition of any COBR meeting will depend on the situation being discussed. Unlike other cabinet committees it has no standing attendance list, ensuring the most relevant people can be invited. COBR can sit at ministerial or official level. For ministerial COBRs, it will be a mixture of officials and agency personnel, alongside ministers from relevant departments and devolved governments (if needed). In addition, regional mayors from England have attended COBR when incidents have been located within their area. 

The meetings are usually chaired by the most senior minister in the room, and the prime minister if he or she is attending, but not always. More often it is a minister from the department with the biggest stake in the incident, known as the lead government department, or a minister from the Cabinet Office.

For example, the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, did not attend the first five Covid-related COBR meetings in January and February 2020 and Dominic Raab (then foreign secretary and first secretary of state) chaired COBR while Johnson was sick in March/April 2020.

How is COBR supported?

The COBR Directorate leads the coordination of the government’s response to emergencies as well as for medium- and longer-term resilience strategy, such as maintaining the National Risk Register. 

The National Situation Centre (SitCen), which forms a key resource to COBR, was established in 2021 to modernise how the government responds to crises through the enhanced use of data. SitCen coordinates data from across government for crisis scenarios and also undertakes crisis monitoring in partnership with thematic experts. SitCen is just one part of the COBR Directorate.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) is a sub-committee of COBR. Its secretariat is located in the Government Office for Science (GO-Science). Chaired by the government chief scientific adviser, SAGE provides scientific guidance in emergencies where necessary. This was particularly significant during the Covid-19 pandemic, but it has also met for a huge range of emergencies such as nuclear incidents overseas, animal disease outbreaks and structural collapses. 

Does COBR work well?

Ministers usually speak positively about the crisis machinery of the civil service, including COBR. Former home secretary Alan Johnson praised the way that the machinery swings into action and that officials “don’t panic”. George Eustice was a junior minister in Defra during the 2014 floods, when the government was being heavily criticised for lack of action. He said that when local authorities had been caught out by the Christmas break, COBR was an effective means to “give everybody a kind of proverbial kick up the backside and get things moving”.

What are the criticisms of COBR?

Convening COBR meetings is resource-intensive, since government departments and responding agencies are responsible for preparing detailed information for decision makers at frequent intervals. Charles Clarke, who was home secretary during the 7 July 2005 terrorist attacks, has warned ¹⁸ Haddon C, Political decision-making in a crisis, British Academy Review, October 2010, www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/598/04-Haddon.pdf  that ministers should be careful to avoid COBR meetings "taking up the energies of the key operational people". 

Andy Hayman, former assistant commissioner in the Metropolitan Police, said that government should avoid making COBR meetings too frequent ¹⁹ Home Affairs Committee, The Home Office's Response to Terrorist Attacks, January 2010, https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmhaff/117/11705.htm  to make sure that operational staff were not "running around servicing meetings but… not actually achieving anything." 

The government’s Amber Book, the guide for crisis response, talks about the importance of “minimising the burden on local responders” ²⁰ Cabinet Office, The Amber Book – Managing Crisis in Central Government, 28 April 2025, retrieved 22 July 2025, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-central-government-s-concept-of-operations.  and the COBR team works closely with these responders to try and avoid placing unnecessary burden on their response efforts.