Civil Contingencies Act
Civil Contingencies Act
The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 came into effect on 14 November 2005. It aims to establish a consistent level of civil protection across the United Kingdom.
The act provides a basic framework for people who plan for local and national emergencies. It explains how organisations and agencies should work together.
Which organisations are responsible for responding to
emergencies?
The new act has identified two categories of organisations
that are responsible for planning for emergencies.
Category One organisations include:
Police, ambulance, fire & rescue services and the Maritime
Coastguard Agency
County, unitary and district councils
The Environment Agency, the Health Protection Agency and Primary
and Acute Care Trusts
These organisations are responsible for:
Assessing the risk of an emergency in their area.
Identifying priorities to develop plans.
Training programmes and emergency exercises.
Developing ways to warn and inform the public.
Planning how they will continue to deliver critical services.
Local authorities have an additional duty to promote business
continuity within the community and with voluntary
organisations.
Category Two organisations include:
Utility companies (gas, phone and electricity suppliers).
Ports and transport providers.
The Strategic Health Authority - each strategic health authority is
responsible for the co-ordination, development and performance
management of NHS organisations. Our strategic health authority is
Surrey and Sussex.
They have a duty to co-operate with each other and with Category
One organisations.
How do these organisations work together?
The UK has been broken into a number of Local Resilience Areas. We
are part of the Sussex Local Resilience Area.
Each Local Resilience Area has a Local Resilience Forum, made up from chief officers from the Category One organisations.
Each Local Resilience Forum is responsible for creating and maintaining a Community Risk Register. This identifies potential emergency situations in the area, and the possible actions needed to deal with each. To find out what the current risks in Sussex are, take a look at the Community Risk Register on the Sussex Resilience Forum website.