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Last updated: 11 May 2010
The Government aims to ensure all organisations have effective, well-practiced emergency plans in place. This section outlines what we mean by emergency planning, different types of plans, the importance of exercising them and training key staff, and the kind of factors which planners should consider.
Emergency planning should aim where possible to prevent emergencies occurring, and when they do occur, good planning should reduce, control or mitigate the effects of the emergency. It is a systematic and ongoing process which should evolve as lessons are learnt and circumstances change.
Emergency planning should be viewed as part of a cycle of activities beginning with establishing a risk profile to help determine what should be the priorities for developing plans (see the Risk section) and ending with review and revision, which then re-starts the whole cycle.
Plans should focus on at least three key groupings of people - the vulnerable, victims (including survivors, family and friends) and responder personnel.
Organisations should aim to maintain plans which cover three different areas:
As obvious as it sounds, emergency plans should include procedures for determining whether an emergency has occurred, and when to activate the plan in response to an emergency. This should include identifying an appropriately trained person who will take the decision, in consultation with others, on when an emergency has occurred.
The maintenance of plans involves more than just their preparation. Once a plan has been prepared, it must be maintained systematically to ensure it remains up-to-date and fit for purpose at any time if an emergency occurs.
It may be that multiple organisations can develop a joint emergency plan where the partners agree that, for a successful combined response, they need a formal set of procedures governing them all. For example, in the event that evacuation is required, the police would need carefully pre-planned co-operation from various other organisations such as fire and ambulance services and the local authority, as well as involvement of others such as transport organisations.
It may be important for an organisation to have more than one emergency plan. It is often the case that organisations have generic plans and specific plans.
Generic plans are the core plan which enables the organisation to respond to, and recover from a wide range of possible emergencies. They should hence include procedures which would be used in all instances for e.g. ensuring the welfare of staff and the provision of sufficient resources for responding to the emergency.
Specific plans relate either to a particular emergency or kind of emergency, or to a specific site or location. Specific plans are a detailed set of arrangements designed to go beyond the generic arrangements when they are likely to prove insufficient in a particular case. A specific plan usually relies on a generic plan. For example, organisations which deal with hazardous materials may need specific plans for responding to a chemical spillage. Some organisations may have specific plans for conducting specific functions in response to an emergency. For instance, the emergency services will have plans for mass evacuation of an urban area and mass decontamination. Organisations should use their risk assessments to decide whether specific plans are necessary or desirable.
Organisations should test the effectiveness of their emergency plans by carrying out exercises, and should ensure that key staff involved in the planning for or response to an emergency receive appropriate training. Training plans should also consider other people who have a role in the emergency plans such as contractors and civil protection partners. The plans themselves should explicitly identify the nature and frequency of training and exercising required.
For more information on exercising, visit the Exercises section.
Emergency planning is at the heart of the civil protection duty on Category 1 responders under the Civil Contingencies Act. The Act requires Category 1 responders to maintain plans for preventing emergencies; reducing, controlling or mitigating the effects of emergencies; and taking other action in the event of emergencies. These should draw on risk assessments (see the Risk section for more detail) and should have regard for the arrangements to warn, inform and advise the public at the time of an emergency (see the section on Warning and informing the public).
The Regulations require plans to contain a procedure for determining whether an emergency has occurred; provision for training key staff; and provision for exercising the plan to ensure it is effective. Procedures should also be put in place to ensure that the plan is reviewed periodically and kept up to date.
Category 1 responders should involve Category 2 responders - and organisations which are not subject to the Act's requirements - as appropriate throughout the planning process. Category 1 responders are specifically required to have regard to the activities of relevant voluntary organisations when developing plans. The Regulations permit Category 1 responders to collaborate with other organisations in delivering the emergency planning duty.
Category 1 responders also have a statutory duty to publish their emergency plans, to the extent necessary or desirable for the purpose of dealing with an emergency.
Planning at a regional level is different from planning at the local level. It aims to ensure co-ordination between representatives of Category 1 and 2 responders and central government bodies. For more information on the regional tier, go to the English Regions section.
There are three types of regional plan:
As at the local level, plans are exercised regularly to test procedures and systems and develop staff awareness and competencies.
It is equally important that organisations within the Devolved Administrations conduct effective emergency planning. The Devolved Administrations section provides more detail on the extent to which the Civil Contingencies Act duties apply in the Devolved Administrations, and their individual emergency planning arrangements.
The Government works closely with the Scottish Executive, Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) and Northern Ireland departments to promote effective emergency planning that is, as far as possible, consistent with that of the rest of the UK.
The UK Government Capabilities Programme is the core framework through which the Government is seeking to build resilience across all parts of the United Kingdom. The programme uses risk assessment over a five year period to identify the generic capabilities that underpin the UK's resilience to disruptive challenges, and ensures that each of these is developed. These capabilities include dealing with mass casualties and fatalities, response to chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear incidents, provision of essential services and warning and informing the public. A full list of the current capabilities can be found here.
The Government has in place a co-ordinated cross-governmental exercise programme covering a comprehensive range of domestic disruptive challenges, including accidents, natural disasters and acts of terrorism. The programme is designed to test rigorously the concept of operations from the coordinated central response through the range of Lead Government Department responsibilities and the involvement of the Devolved Administrations, to the regional tier and local responders. The Exercises section provides more detail.
These national processes feed into the Devolved Administrations, regional and local levels to ensure fully integrated emergency planning at all levels throughout the UK.
The section on UK Government provides more detail on emergency planning at the national level.
Where appropriate, organisations should consider at an early stage in planning whether voluntary organisations may have capabilities which could assist in responding to an emergency.
The voluntary sector can provide a wide range of skills and services in responding to an emergency. These include: practical support (e.g. first aid, transportation, provisions for responders); psycho-social support (e.g. counselling, helplines); equipment (e.g. radios, medical equipment); and information services (such as public training and communications).
The Civil Contingencies Act Regulations identify three pieces of legislation pre-dating this Act which were introduced separately in Britain and Northern Ireland under sector-specific legislation operated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and HSE Northern Ireland. These relate to major accident hazards at industrial establishments (Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations (COMAH)), to hazardous pipelines (Pipelines Safety Regulations) and to radiation hazards (Radiation (Emergency Preparation and Public Information) Regulations (REPPIR)). These sector-specific Regulations have established multi-agency emergency planning regimes in co-operation with the operators. To avoid duplication, the Civil Contingencies Act Regulations provide that the duty to maintain plans under the Act does not apply to emergencies which are dealt with by these pieces of legislation.
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