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National Capabilities Survey, 2006

The National Capabilities Survey was launched on 2 February 2006. The Survey is part of the Government's programme to make the country more resilient to disruptive events. Conducted every other year, it will provide an up to date picture of preparedness, and help plan improvements.

The first full Survey followed a few months after the provisions of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 came into effect, in November 2005. It shows that there have been improvements since a more limited 'mapping exercise' first examined the preparedness of local responders for emergencies, in 2003/04.

Background

Aims and Objectives

The National Capabilities¹ Survey (NCS) provides an assessment of current levels of national resilience to inform national policies and prioritisation of investment in resilience. It will do so by gathering information from a wide range of resilience stakeholders, in several different sectors and at all levels of resilience planning.

The survey will play a key role in assessing the UK's readiness to respond to a range of assessed risks, be they terrorist attacks or natural hazards such as flooding. The results of the survey will help to improve our understanding of national preparedness and inform priorities for future investment, exercises and policy development.

Approach

The NCS has been developed by the Civil Contingencies Secretariat and the Department for Communities and Local Government, in collaboration with Lead Government Departments and the Cabinet Office's Social Research Unit.

A range of questionnaires are issued, each tailored to their intended audience and designed with the aim of collecting specific information relating to capabilities. Wherever possible the NCS will rely on data collated from existing initiatives and information sources rather than place an extra burden on responders.

The survey will be carried out every two years to ensure that we continue to improve our preparedness on the basis of up to date information.

2006 NCS Overview

The National Capabilities Survey 2006 was completed in Summer 2006. The Survey built on the successful Regional Capability Mapping Exercise led by the Department for Communities and Local Government in 2003/04. The 2006 exercise was broader and more comprehensive in its scope, covering not one but three strands:

• Local response: questionnaires were issued to over 500 groups of Category 1 responders under the Civil Contingencies Act, including every local authority (upper and lower tier), police force, fire brigade, coroner and the Environment Agency in England and Wales. There was, overall, a 90% response to the survey which asked some 250 questions about a range of 'capabilities' relevant to local responders' responsibilities for emergency planning and response.

• Organisations providing essential services (including for example gas, electricity, water supplies, but also the National Health Service) were asked questions concerning their ability to maintain business continuity in the event of disruptive events. Overall there was a 71% response to the Survey.

• Questionnaires were sent to the nine regional government offices in England and the Welsh Assembly Government co-ordinated the survey in Wales.

• Also, over 20 government departments with a leading role in the event of a crisis, or who need a crisis management capability, were asked about their planning, business continuity arrangements and functional capabilties.

The survey results will be treated in confidence and will be used by the government to inform future resilience planning.

The survey suggests that:

• The UK has a good level of preparedness overall. Where comparisons can be made with the more limited 2003 mapping exercise the local response results demonstrate clear signs of improvement in specific areas, such as in planning to respond to a human influenza pandemic.

• Preparedness for less clear-cut eventualities is well developed: 'generic' capabilities (for example: against the event of a chemical, biological or radiological (CBR) incident; for urban search & rescue tasks) have benefited from investment and heightened interest.

• Likewise, multi-agency cooperation seems to have benefited from emphasis on partnership in the Civil Contingencies Act: for example in local authorities' plans to assist NHS in dealing with mass casualties and mass fatalities; and cooperation also with DEFRA/State Veterinary Services in dealing with infectious animal diseases.

• Although planning for emergencies at the local level is well-established and has improved significantly, there is scope for making the review and exercise of plans more systematic.

• Within the essential service workstreams there is a good level of business continuity and crisis management. Planning for specific scenarios is also good but less developed than generic planning.

• There is little regional variation in preparedness; however there are differences at the local level within regions. This suggests that there are more significant differences in the challenges faced at a local level within any given region, than between regions.

• Central government's core response capabilities are well-developed. Departmental business continuity plans are in place and are being exercised.

¹ 'Capability' is a military term which includes both personnel, equipment and training and such matters as plans, doctrine and the concept of operations.

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