Business Continuity (Pandemic Flu)

From the Civil Contingencies Secretariat - Wednesday 18th October 2006:

Monday saw the publication of the Cabinet Office's introductory material on pandemic influenza for businesses and other organisations which can be used, should they so wish, as basis of advice to their staff during the current pandemic alert period WHO Phase 3 to raise awareness about pandemic influenza. This advice can be found at:

www.ukresilience.info/latest/human_pandemic.shtm#business

Publication does not mean either an increase in the risk of a pandemic emerging or that a pandemic is necessarily imminent. It is part of Cabinet Office's ongoing work to ensure that businesses and other organisations have appropriate advice to help them plan. Please see below a heads up from CCS on advice published on UKResilience website yesterday.

This advice joins other currently available government guidance and advice for businesses and organisations to assist pandemic influenza planning which can be found at www.ukresilience.info. In particular, 'Guidance on contingency planning for a possible influenza pandemic' and the 'Pandemic influenza checklist for businesses'.

General information on an influenza pandemic and the impact it might have, including the UK contingency plan, can be found at: www.dh.gov.uk/pandemicflu"

Checklist for Businesses

It is a recommendation of the government (and common sense) for all organisations to try and minimise the impact of any disruption.

The adoption of robust and yet flexible Business Continuity Plans will help to do this.

This link will take you to a pdf document "Pandemic Influenza Checklist for Businesses" on the UK Resilience website.

It has been prepared by the Civil Continguencies Secretariat in conjunction with other government departments and a number of organisations, including the CBI, The Institute of Directors, and the British Chamber of Commerce.

It has been designed to provide a simple reference tool for businesses which also allows them to benchmark their current state of planning preparedness.

Other Useful Links

• Pandemic Influenza
  Further information on Pandemic Influenza on this website


• Introduction to BCM
  Guidance from the UK Resilience website.


• Downloadable Toolkit on Risk
  From the Office of Government Commerce (OGC).  This booklet describes proven good practice for procurement, programmes, projects, risk and service management. It brings together policy and best practice in a single point of reference and helps you to ask the critical questions about capability and project delivery, and provides practical advice on how to improve.