Policy paper

2010 to 2015 government policy: emergency planning

Updated 8 May 2015

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Applies to England

This is a copy of a document that stated a policy of the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government. The previous URL of this page was https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/working-with-local-partners-to-plan-for-and-respond-to-emergencies Current policies can be found at the GOV.UK policies list.

Issue

It’s important that local communities can be resilient in the event of major emergencies.

We work with local and national bodies to ensure they work and communicate together effectively to respond to and recover from emergencies.

Actions

Working with local resilience forums

The government’s aim is to reduce the risk from emergencies so that people can go about their business freely and with confidence, and the Cabinet Office co-ordinates the central government response. The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is responsible for the government’s work with local councils and other local services in England to plan for major emergencies. DCLG works closely with other central government departments and local resilience forums.

A local resilience forum is a formal group made up of representatives from local public services including the police, fire and ambulance services, local councils, the NHS, the Environment Agency and other organisations that have a duty or an interest in planning for major emergencies.

DCLG provides a national network of advisers who work closely with all 38 local resilience forums throughout England to:

  • help them plan for, respond to and recover from a wide range of emergencies
  • make sure that organisations effectively fulfil their roles and responsibilities set out in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004

Working with local strategic co-ordinating groups when emergencies happen

Some emergencies need emergency responders and local agencies to work together and in these cases a strategic co-ordinating group, chaired in most cases by a senior police officer, will be set up to oversee and co-ordinate the local response.

Strategic co-ordinating groups can ask for the help of a government representative to ensure that the government has a full understanding of the impact of the emergency and can help with any extra support or action that may help local organisations to respond.

A response co-ordinating group may be convened where:

  • local organisations have been, or may be, overwhelmed and support from other places is needed
  • an emergency affects a number of areas so it would be useful to bring together representatives from other strategic co-ordinating groups and/or organisations

Providing strategic support

Government departments can provide strategic support for emergencies affecting their responsibilities. For any given emergency, a ‘lead government department’ usually takes overall responsibility for:

  • assessing the situation
  • ensuring ministers are kept up to date
  • providing co-ordinated policy and other support as necessary to local responders

Resilience advisers work with the government departments that are responsible for dealing with specific emergencies. For example, as part of the Department for Transport and Department of Health winter preparations, resilience advisers highlight winter weather risks with local resilience forums and promote local resilience to severe weather.

Financial support for responding to emergencies

Local authorities can apply for financial help from government through the Bellwin Scheme for their immediate costs of dealing with an emergency in their area.

The scheme is usually used as a response to incidents where bad weather caused threats to life and property beyond all previous local experience. Although the law does not rule out other types of incident, DCLG expects that the scheme will continue to apply mainly to bad weather incidents.

More details about how the scheme works are available in the Bellwin Scheme 2013 to 2014: guidance notes and application form.

Helping communities recover from emergencies

In a small number of emergencies, an event is of such a scale that the recovery process may benefit from a degree of government co-ordination and support.

For example, the government helped businesses and communities affected by the public disorder that happened in August 2011 by co-ordinating a range of support from across government for local businesses and local authorities.

National Risk Register

You can see an official government assessment of risks to the UK, both from natural hazards like flooding and different types of terrorism on the National Risk Register. The government has also produced national recovery guidance.

Background

In October 2010, the government published its national security strategy A strong Britain in an age of uncertainty. This describes how we need the structures in place to allow us to react quickly and effectively to new and evolving threats to our security. Government departments contribute to tasks identified in the National Security Strategy, with overall co-ordination provided by the Cabinet Office.

The National Risk Register forms part of the National Security Strategy. In January 2012 the National Risk Register was updated to inform the public about the government’s current assessment of the likelihood and potential impact of a range of different civil emergency risks.

The National Risk Register divides risks into 3 main categories:

  • natural events
  • major accidents
  • malicious attacks

It evaluates a number of risks under each of these headings, rated by relative impact and relative likelihood, and discusses the measures currently in place to deal with each of these and what individuals and organisations can do to mitigate the effects of civil disruption.