I will be very surprised if it does anything other than underpin the veracity of what I have said in my post about where the responsibility resides/resided for the planning of disasters, including pandemics. In fact - forget surprised, I am certain that it will underpin those views - simply because they are factual.
The problem is that people confuse accountability with responsibility and also delivery.
Of course SoSs bear ultimate accountability for their departments/briefs - we have seen no end of resignations of SoSs across governments over many years due to some major event/embarrassment. When something major happens, heads must roll - and the appropriate SoS or Minister is the obvious individual to provide satisfaction.
But SoSs and ministers come and go and are often seen by the parts of the CS owning that area as inconvenient but likely temporary distractions to be managed. I do not mean that as a particular criticism - how many changes has there been to Defence, Home Office and Health has there been in the past 15 years? Meanwhile the departments - in this case the DHSC and the NHS Board continue with the strategies and delivery for which they are responsible.
With regards to Health, it has long been acknowledged that there has been a need for a level of devolved accountability/responsibility - the ability to manage a long-term (say 20 years) strategy to transform the service into an integrated Health & Social Care Service Provision. That was the Brief given to Simon Stevens when he was appointed and it is the role of DHSC to work to support the NHS in the development of strategies and the NHS Board responsibility to manage delivery - including procurement and supply chain management.
