The Home Office has awarded a series of contracts to prepare for a ‘mass fatality’ scenario where casualties will need to be treated or stored in huge coronavirus pandemic-style marquees. In a chilling echo of the darkest days of the Covid-19 crisis, large structures are being ordered in preparation for what the department calls “a major incident resulting in a large number of fatalities which could overwhelm existing body storage capacity”.
During the pandemic, the Government and military constructed a series of enormous so-called Nightingale Hospitals after fears were raised that massive casualty numbers from Covid would overwhelm the NHS. As well as treatment beds, huge morgue facilities were also hastily constructed to bolster capacity.
Thankfully, many of the Nightingale facilities remained underused, but similar preparations now appear to be happening once again as part of the Home Office’s “Mass Fatality Capability Resilience Storage Framework”. Reacting to the publication of some of the contracts, Lee Nallalingham, the Interim Branch Chairman of Reform UK, Newham and Tower Hamlets, wrote on X: “This week the Home Office awarded contracts worth over £1m to prepare for a mass fatality event, including capacity to store up to 700 bodies.
Mr Nallalingham added: “What exactly are they expecting?”
One social media user added, “Logistically speaking, this is a good thing, in principle, in terms of progressing with storage in the eventuality something happens…however, it is equally terrifying that someone has assessed current storage and is predicting it is not enough.”
In terms of threats to the UK, the overall level for a terrorism event for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland currently stands at substantial – meaning an attack is likely. Substantial is not the highest level of threat, it is behind severe, meaning an attack is highly likely, and the top level of critical, meaning an attack is highly likely in the near future.
As far as threats from disease go, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) recently published a list of 24 pathogen families, a relatively high/medium/low categorisation of “pandemic and epidemic potential”. The list included terrifying, deadly diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Ebola, Zika virus, and, of course, SARS-CoV-2, otherwise known as COVID-19.
In a Home Office description relating to the preparations for mass casualty events, the department said: “In the event of a major incident resulting in a large number of fatalities which could overwhelm existing body storage capacity the Home Office would provide contingency support to the requesting local authority.”
The statement continued: “The scope for this provision is predominantly England, however there is a possibility that the Devolved Administration Governments (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) may also enrol.
“We will outline the configuration of our core requirement of storage for up to 700 fatalities across three phases. The final tier relates to an alternative building/ structure that could be housed outside independently, similar to Nightingale hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“They should allow both refrigeration and freezing. The core requirement will be at least 450 fatalities including bariatric and/ or fragmented fatalities. This will need to be deployed within five days.”
Express.co.uk have approached the Home Office for comment.