Joint response in an emergency

An "emergency" is defined in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 as: …an event or situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare in a place in the United Kingdom, (i.e. loss of human life, human illness or injury, homelessness, damage to property, disruption of a supply of money, food, water, energy or fuel, disruption of a system of communication, disruption of facilities for transport, or disruption of services relating to health),

or

...an event or situation which threatens serious damage to the environment of a place in the United Kingdom, (i.e. contamination of land, water or air with biological, chemical or radio-active matter, or disruption or destruction of plant life or animal life),

or

...war, or terrorism, which threatens serious damage to the security of the United Kingdom.

A major emergency, as defined by the Association of Chief Police Officers, is one that "...requires the implementation of special arrangements by one or more of the emergency services, The NHS or the local authority".

It is the way these diverse organisations work together that is critical. As the then Home Secretary said in his foreword to "Dealing with Disaster" (now " Emergency Response and Recovery" .pdf) ...the effectiveness of the total response will depend on how well the emergency services, local authorities and central government have harmonised their preparations.

The key message is the need for all those who are involved with the response to any disaster to be actively associated with planning that response."

By definition major emergencies are unexpected and will result in an initial period of chaos. The emergency services, working with other organisations, will bring order to the situation.

To enable joint working to be effective there are strong Command and Control procedures, which will ensure that suitable arrangements are made at the incident site, for the evacuation and care of survivors and that the public are kept informed.

There are also coordination arrangements at a regional level for widespread emergencies. (Government Office for the East of England)

In Suffolk this joint planning process is led by the Suffolk Resilience Forum (SRF).

Responders

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 also lists those who respond to emergencies and places them into two catagories (Cat 1 & Cat 2 responders).

Cat 1 responders

These are the local authorities (county, district, borough, city, etc.); emergency services (police, fire, ambulance, coastguard, etc.); health departments (PCTs, HPA, port health authorities, etc); and the Environment Agency.

Cat 2 responders

These are the utilities companies (gas, water, electricity, telephone, etc.); transport (railways, aurports, harbours, etc.); HSE, etc.