Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms

{{short description|UK government facility for crisis meetings }}

{{Infobox room

| name = Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms

| image = File:UK Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBR) Logo.png

| caption =

| location = Cabinet Office, 70 Whitehall, London

| country = United Kingdom

| building =

| purpose = Crisis management centre

}}

The Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBR) are meeting rooms in the Cabinet Office in London. These rooms are used for committees which co-ordinate the actions of government bodies in response to national or regional crises, or during overseas events with major implications for the UK. It is sometimes referred to as COBRA.

The facility

The Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms are a group of meeting rooms in the Cabinet Office at 70 Whitehall in London, often used for different committees which co-ordinate the actions of bodies within the Government of the United Kingdom in response to instances of national or regional crisis, or during events abroad with major implications for the UK. It is occasionally, but not officially, referred to as COBRA,{{cite web | url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmhaff/117/117i.pdf | title=The Home Office's Response to Terrorist Attacks | work=The Stationery Office | date=26 January 2010 | access-date=25 February 2020| location=London |at= p. 5 chapter 2 |quote=COBRA is not an officially recognised term and will therefore not be found in official documents and evidence.}} even when the acronym is spelt out by officials.{{cite news | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18958032 | title=London 2012: What exactly is a Cobra meeting? | work=BBC News | date=23 July 2012 | access-date=25 February 2020| first=Chris|last=Mason|author-link=Chris Mason (journalist)|quote='It sounds great but it stands for Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms, so it's rather mundane,' reflects Lord O'Donnell.}}

Other meeting rooms in the Cabinet Office are not part of the COBR facility, including the old Treasury Board Room, which is labelled "Conference Room A", located in Kent's Treasury, a different part of the Cabinet Office building.{{cite news | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/one-room-nine-politicians-britains-future-on-the-table-2107141.html | title=One Room Nine Politicians | work=The Independent | date=15 October 2010 | access-date=18 December 2019 | location=London}}

File:Cabinet Office Briefing Room.jpg, this is the only known publicly available photo of the classified COBR facility.|alt=]]

A single photo of one of the rooms in COBR was released in 2010 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.{{cite web|url=http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/cobr|title=COBR – a Freedom of Information request to Cabinet Office|date=12 November 2010 |publisher=WhatDoTheyKnow}}

The committees

The composition of a ministerial-level meeting in COBR depends on the nature of the incident but it is usually chaired by the Prime Minister or another senior minister, with other key ministers as appropriate, city mayors and representatives of relevant external organisations such as the National Police Chiefs' Council and the Local Government Association.{{cite news |url=http://politics.guardian.co.uk/publicservices/story/0,11032,816220,00.html|title=What is Cobra|work=The Guardian|access-date=15 September 2009 | location=London | date=21 October 2002 | first=Joey | last=Gardiner}}

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) is a sub-committee of COBR.{{cite web |last1=Sharman |first1=Jon |title=Publishing Sage membership would 'increase public confidence' in government, agrees Whitty |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-sage-evidence-chris-whitty-public-members-a9482941.html |work=The Independent |access-date=25 April 2020 |date=23 April 2020}}

The events

The first COBR meeting took place in the 1970s to oversee the government's response to the 1972 miners' strike.{{cite web |url=http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/features/sfs/file_9.htm | title=File 9: Central Government in War in the 1980s}}{{cite book |last1=Winterton|first1=Jonathan |last2=Winterton |first2=Ruth |title=Coal, Crisis, and Conflict: The 1984–85 Miners' Strike in Yorkshire |year=1989 |publisher=Manchester University Press |page=145 |isbn=9780719025488 }} Other events that have led to meetings being convened include the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege, the 11 September 2001 attacks, the July 2015 presence of migrants in and around Calais,{{cite news | url=http://www.dw.com/en/britain-calls-emergency-meeting-on-calais-migrants/a-18619447?maca=en-newsletter_en_bulletin-2097-html-newsletter | title=Britain calls emergency meeting on Calais migrants | work=Deutsche Welle | date=31 July 2015 | agency=Agence France-Presse | access-date=31 July 2015 | location=Berlin}} the COVID-19 pandemic,{{cite web |title=Coronavirus: UK to remain in 'containment' phase of response |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51796072 |website=BBC News |access-date=9 April 2025 |date=9 March 2020}} and the 2024 England riots.{{cite web |last1=Mackintosh |first1=Thomas |last2=Clarke-Billings |first2=Lucy |title=No 10 to hold emergency Cobra meeting after weekend of violence |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpwddpzyxpzo |website=BBC News |access-date=9 April 2025 |date=4 August 2024}}

Criticisms

In 2009, former senior police officer Andy Hayman, who sat on a committee after the 7 July 2005 London bombings and at other intervals from 2005 to 2007, was highly critical of its "cumbersome, bureaucratic and overly political" workings in his book The Terrorist Hunters.{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/cobra-emergency-committee-slows-everything-down-j7v866w8dl8|title=Cobra emergency committee 'slows everything down'|last=O'Neil|first=Sean |date=22 June 2009|work=The Times|access-date=3 January 2010|location=London}}

References

Category:Emergency management in the United Kingdom

Category:Cabinet Office (United Kingdom)

Category:Individual rooms

Category:National government buildings in London