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| Location | Cabinet Office, 70Whitehall,London |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Purpose | Crisis management centre |
TheCabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBR) are meeting rooms in theCabinet Office in London.[citation needed] These rooms are used for committees which co-ordinate the actions ofgovernment bodies in response to national or regional crises, or during overseas events with major implications for the UK. It is sometimes referred to asCOBRA by media sources, and is pronounced "cobra".
The Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms are a group of meeting rooms in theCabinet Office at 70 Whitehall in London,[citation needed] often used for different committees which co-ordinate the actions of bodies within theGovernment 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 often referred to as COBRA, although this is not an official term.[1][2] The reason for the different titles is unclear; it may have been confused with other meeting rooms in the Cabinet Office which are not part of the COBR facility.[3]
A single photo of one of the rooms in COBR was released in 2010 in response to aFreedom of Information Act request.[4] In 2024 it was confirmed that this photograph remains valid, and that there have been no material changes to the layout.[5]
The composition of a Cobra meeting depends on the nature of the situation.[6]
TheScientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) is a sub-committee of COBR.[7]
COBR meetings were created in the 1970s following the government's response to the1972 miners' strike.[8][9] The first COBR meeting then took place during theMunich massacre in the summer of 1972.[10] Other events that have led to meetings being convened include the 1980Iranian Embassy siege, theSeptember 11 attacks, the July 2015presence of migrants in and around Calais,[11] theCOVID-19 pandemic,[12] and the2024 United Kingdom riots.[13]
In 2009, former senior police officerAndy Hayman, who sat on a committee after the7 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 bookThe Terrorist Hunters.[14]
COBRA is not an officially recognised term and will therefore not be found in official documents and evidence.
'It sounds great but it stands forCabinet Office Briefing Rooms, so it's rather mundane,' reflects Lord O'Donnell.
