Cabinet Office Briefing Room A

COBRA (for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A) is a name used to describe ad-hoc committees within the UK government for responding to emergency situations.

It meets in the Cabinet Office briefing rooms (COBR) , which are located underground beneath Whitehall. Depending on your sources, COBRA is either a permanent operation on 24-hour standby, or a fanciful name made up by the UK press based on the fact that crisis meetings tended to be held in briefing room A.

Not all meetings in briefing room A are COBRA meetings, and the room is also used to host ordinary meetings.

See also:

• Civil Contingencies Committee

External links:

• http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page6343.asp
• http://politics.guardian.co.uk/publicservices/story/0,11032,816220,00.html
• http://www.politicallinks.co.uk/politics2/briefing/lobbybriefingArchive020425.asp