What is a Major Emergency?
The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 defines an emergency as: "An event or situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare in a place in the UK, the environment of a place in the UK, or war or terrorism which threatens serious damage to the security of the UK."
Emergencies can happen anywhere and at any time and they can affect anyone. They can come in many forms and sizes and each one is different. We must plan for emergencies to ensure that we respond to the emergency efficiently and quickly.
Emergencies that can occur
As Category 1 Responders under the Civil Contingencies Act there are duties that have been placed upon us in order to ensure the impact of emergencies upon the community is minimized so that we can return to the normal way of life as quickly as possible. There are 4 main civil protection duties and they are:
- Risk Assessment
- Business Continuity Management
- Emergency Planning
- Maintaining public awareness & arrangements to warn, inform & advise the public.
A fifth duty applies to local authorities alone that is:
- Promotion of business continuity management to the commercial sector and voluntary organisations
For more information on business continuity management, please go to the Business Continuity Management pages
There are steps that you can take in order to prepare, at home, for an incident or emergency. For further information on these steps please see our section Preparing For Emergencies