Cabinet Office UK Resilience

Main navigation

Progress Report - July 2002

Foreword by David Hay

In November 2001, the National Steering Committee on Public Warning and Information (NSC) produced its interim report which was formally delivered to the Head of the Cabinet Office Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS), in January. It was well received, its recommendations being accepted as an appropriate basis for agreeing future workstreams; and the active support which, we now receive from the CCS is very encouraging.

In May, a full meeting of the NSC was held at the Cabinet Office and attended by the (then) Minister with responsibility for civil protection Mr Christopher Leslie who officially launched our web-site, which is incorporated on the Cabinet Office UK Resilience web-site and provides details about the NSC as well as the full contents of the interim report. All future reports will be similarly reproduced.

This is the first of two progress reports which we intend to produce during 2002. Its primary purpose is to present recommendations to Ministers, in line with the main workstreams identified in the interim report.

Under my chairmanship, the NSC now operates with three sub-groups dealing with Sirens and New Technology (terms of reference for the new combined group are contained on page 24), Media Issues, and Public Education. They bring together representatives of various agencies and professional bodies to consider the many issues related to improving arrangements for warning and informing the public.

I am extremely grateful for the considerable and unwavering commitment of the three group chairs: Chris Samuel, Rosanna Briggs, and Evan Morris, and for the support which emanates from those who participate in their group meetings and who continue to undertake this demanding work alongside their day-to-day responsibilities.

I believe we have taken the first few steps on the road to achieving our aim of encouraging improvements in the arrangements for warning and informing the public; but it is only a beginning. With Government support and a little patient understanding, there is much more we can do, within the NSC, to move forward from this point and develop our ideas.

As Chairman, I am acutely aware of the extra burdens which this places on NSC members, and of the requirement to continually consider ways of monitoring and rationalising workloads in such a manner that we can deliver constructive outcomes within a reasonable time frame.

The work of our three sub-groups is closely interwoven, linking two "deliverable product areas" viz technological devices and programmes of public education and awareness, with a "supporting service area" viz the use of media to deliver the message.

In future, they must work ever more closely together to support each other. For example, I envisage that future NSC reports will demonstrate clearly how programmes of public education could be developed to explain the nature of tested and proven technological solutions and systems identified by the Sirens and New Technology Group; and how the Media Issues Group could recommend strategies to assist in Public Education campaigns aimed at various community groups from ethnic minorities to private sector businesses etc.

I believe that the development of the NSC web-site should help us to create a gateway through which the civil protection community can gain access to useful contacts, information, views and news about developments in our particular field. There is considerable experience and expertise within the NSC, coupled with effective links to the wider civil protection community.

In the following pages, we have mapped out some challenging but achievable work plans for the NSC, arrived at some preliminary conclusions about several important areas of public warning and information, and proposed some appropriate recommendations which reflect those conclusions.

All of this is positive and encouraging. However, I am convinced that our primary recommendation for a new legislative framework, supported by clear lines of accountability and responsibility, represents a fundamental pre-requisite for any meaningful future progress. As the NSC interim report stated: where there is a clear responsibility placed on a particular agency to provide public warnings, and the necessary resources are made available to achieve this, considerable improvements result. It is a message which bears repeating.

This is a difficult but extremely important issue which is constantly raised in almost any discussion on the subject of public warning and information. I trust that the current review of national emergency emergency planning arrangements will address it, because I believe it merits close and early attention from Ministers. I recognise the significant implications behind that proposal but without adequate legislation, there will remain a lack of clarity, doubts from major stakeholders such as the Police over potential liability, and a weakness in terms of commitment, ownership and responsibility.

It is not the remit of the NSC to set policy but to advise and inform. My vision is that the NSC will lead the way towards the creation of an integrated public warning and information package across the UK designed to meet local, regional and national needs. I believe we could achieve this by helping to develop appropriate national standards, promoting the concept "think globally but act locally", thereby encouraging the implementation of local solutions for local problems. Progress has already been achieved, much more remains to be done.

David Hay
July 2002