Regional Resilience Teams
The primary role of the Regional Resilience Team (RRT) in any emergency
will be to co-ordinate the response of the whole Government Office and to
ensure effective communications between the national and local level.
In events where the scale or duration mean that the resources of an
individual RRT are exhausted, the Teams will be able to draw on other staff
and expertise from within the Government Office and on the resources of
RRTs in other regions.
Liaison with central Government
Even in smaller scale events, Government Departments may approach the RRTs
for information, who in turn will request situation reports from local
responders. Using the RRTs as the main point of contact will reduce
the risk of duplicated requests from different Government
Departments. Local responders can also use the Teams as a first port
of call for requests for advice or assistance from central government.
In carrying out this role, it may be appropriate for the RRT to place a
liaison officer within the local responders’ operational control, i.e
‘Gold command’. This will be co-located with the Home
Office led Government Liaison Team when present.
When the national Civil Contingencies Committee (CCC) mechanism is brought
into play, the RRTs will provide situation reports for the CCC Situation
Cell, the Lead Government Department and any other Government Department
with a significant interest.
Regional Civil Contingencies Committees
Regional Resilience Forums (RRFs) have no role to play in the operational
response to emergencies. There may, however, be exceptional
circumstances in which the scale and geographical extent of an incident
requires the response and recovery effort to be co-ordinated at a regional
level. In these circumstances a Regional Civil Contingencies Committee
(RCCC) will be set up.
Its roles will be to:
- collate and maintain a strategic picture of the evolving situation
within the region, with a particular (but not exclusive) focus on
consequence management and recovery issues
- assess whether there are any issues which cannot be resolved at a local
level
- facilitate mutual aid arrangements within the region and, where
necessary, between regions to resolve such issues
- ensure an effective flow of communication between local, regional and
national levels, including the co-ordination of reports to the national
level on the response and recovery effort
- raise to a national level any issues that cannot be resolved at a local
or regional level
- ensure that the national input to response and recovery is co-ordinated
with the local and regional efforts
- guide the deployment of resources across the region by identifying
regional priorities
- provide, where appropriate a regional spokesperson
RCCCs will observe the principle of ‘subsidiarity’ - it is
recognised that local decisions should be taken at the local level. The
RCCC will not interfere in local command and control arrangements (unless
specifically empowered to do so by emergency regulations – see below)
but, will provide a mechanism for ensuring that local responders can be as
fully informed as possible in the decisions they have to take. Where
arrangements already exist for the co-ordination of mutual aid the RCCC
will complement such arrangements and add value by taking a multi-agency
overview.
RCCCs will also liaise on the deployment of national resources. So,
for example, an RCCC will take a view on the need for military aid and on
priorities within the region for such aid, and put requests to the national
level. However, the Ministry of Defence will authorise the use of
military aid and decisions on the deployment and direction of military
staff and resources will remain with the normal command hierarchy.
Support for RCCCs
Where events justify the setting up of an RCCC, the RRT will take the lead
in:
- arranging a location for meetings
- establishing video/teleconferencing links when appropriate
- drawing up agendas, circulating papers and information to committee
members as necessary
- providing the formal record of committees’ discussions and
decisions.
Triggers
An RCCC will only be established where it will add value to the response
and recovery effort. It is unlikely, therefore, that an RCCC will be
convened in the event of a single-site event (e.g. a conventional car-bomb
attack) regardless of scale. In these circumstances, even in the most
severe event, there would be a direct line of communication between local
and national level and a multi-agency Gold Command structure would be
created.
In London, the multi-agency Gold Co-ordinating Group is the RCCC so there
will in effect be an RCCC for single-site incidents.
An RCCC is more likely to be set up where a number of local Gold Commands
are established within a region (e.g. in the event of a multi site
terrorist attack) or, in particular, where there is an event with
widespread effects and a non-police led response (e.g. severe weather,
infectious disease outbreak, fuel shortages, etc.).
An RCCC can be called at the request of a member of a local Gold Command,
with the agreement of the Government Office. A request for an RCCC
meeting can also be made by members of the Regional Resilience Forum.
The Lead Government Department can also instruct the Government Office to
establish an RCCC.
Membership
As with RRFs, the core membership of the RCCC will be drawn from
representatives of the emergency services, local authorities, central
government departments and agencies with a regional presence but other
agencies such as voluntary organisations, utilities and transport operators
could be invited, depending upon the circumstances.
In London, the RCCC (Gold Co-ordinating Group) for a large scale emergency
would include representatives of the utilities and transport providers, as
well as the wider health community, configured as cells to enable an
efficient Gold Group.
In the first instance, the RCCC will be chaired by the Regional Director of
the Government Office for the Region (or their deputy). However, the
Committee can agree another chair, if the circumstances merit it (e.g. in
the event of a human disease outbreak, the chair is likely to be the
Regional Director of Public Health). The Government Office will
provide specialist topic and geographical advice as well as secretariat
support for the RCCC.
In London, as the RCCC (for immediate impact events) is the Gold
Co-ordinating Group, it will be chaired by the police. Proposals are
being developed for the membership, chair and make up of the RCCC for
‘rising tide’ events and in the recovery phase.
The Regional Nominated Co-ordinator
Under the provisions of the Civil Contingencies Act, if emergency
regulations are introduced, the Government must appoint a Regional
Nominated Co-ordinator (RNC), whose principle function will be to
facilitate the co-ordination of activities under the emergency
regulations. Specific functions for the RNC may be included in the
regulations. The RNC would also assume the Chair of the RCCC.
Emergency Regulations
The Civil Contingencies Act confers a power on Her Majesty (or in certain
very limited circumstances, a senior Minister of the Crown) to make
regulations if an emergency has occurred or is about to occur. The
Act gives further detail as to what provision may (and may not) be included
in emergency regulations. The Act expressly allows for emergency
powers to have effect in only a part or region of the United Kingdom.
An essential point to note is that Emergency Powers legislation is a
mechanism for dealing with only the most serious of emergencies that
require an urgent response, an instrument of last resort. The 1920
Act has been used twelve times in its 84 year history, the last time being
in 1974. In the years since a considerable amount of sector specific
emergency legislation has been introduced which reduced the need to resort
to emergency powers, in part because of a recognition that Emergency Powers
legislation was inadequate. There is still a need for a latent
capacity to rapidly make new temporary statutory provision where this is
the most effective way of enabling the resolution of an emergency
situation.
The Act introduces a range of other new features, mostly designed to ensure
emergency powers cannot be misused and can be used in a more targeted and
proportionate manner. The centre piece of these is the “triple
lock”, which ensures emergency powers will only be available if:
- an emergency that threatens serious damage to human welfare, the
environment or security has occurred, is occurring or is about to occur
- it is necessary to make temporary provision urgently in order to
resolve the emergency as existing powers are insufficient and it is not
possible to bring forward a Bill in the usual way because of the need to
act urgently
- emergency regulations must be proportionate to the aspect or effect of
the emergency they are directed at
In addition emergency powers:
- cannot prohibit or enable the prohibition of participation in, or any
activity in connection with, a strike or other industrial action
- cannot instigate any form of military conscription
- cannot alter any aspect of criminal procedures
- cannot create any new offence other than breach of the regulations
themselves
- must be compatible with the Human Rights Act and EU law
