Emergency planning legislation

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004

The Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) 2004 sets out duties for those engaged in Civil Protection with emphasis placed on prevention as well as reinforcing the planning, response, mitigation and recovery aspects of the role.

The Act, and accompanying non-legislative measures, delivers a single framework for civil protection in the United Kingdom. The Act is separated into two substantive parts:

Part 1 focuses on local arrangements for civil protection, establishing a statutory framework of roles and responsibilities for local responders.

Part 2 focuses on emergency powers, establishing a modern framework for the use of special legistlative measures that might be necessary to deal with the effects of the most serious emergencies.

The key to modernising existing legislation is updating the definition of what constitutes an "emergency" and defines an emergency as:

an event or situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare;
an event or situation which threatens serious damage to the environment;
war, or terrorism, which threatens serious damage to security.

The purpose of Part 1 of the Act, together with supporting Regulations and statutory guidance, is to establish a new statutory framework for civil protection at the local level. The Act will enhance existing arrangements by:

establishing a clear set of roles and responsibilities for those involved in emergency preparation and response for local responders;
giving greater structure and consistency to local civil protection activity;
establishing a sound basis for performance management at a local level.

The Act divides local responders into two categories, imposing a different set of duties on each.

Category 1 are those organisations at the core of the response to most emergencies (e.g. emergency services, local authorities, NHS bodies). and are subject to the full set of civil protection duties. They will be required to:

Assess the risk of emergencies occurring and use this to inform contingency planning;
Put in place emergency plans;
Put in place Business Continuity Management arrangements;
Put in place arrangements to make information available to the public about civil protection matters and maintain arrangements to warn, inform and advise the public in the event of an emergency;
Share information with other local responders to enhance co-ordination;
Co-operate with other local responders to enhance co-ordination and efficiency; and
Provide advice and assistance to businesses and voluntary organisations about business continuity management (local authorities only).

Category 2 organisations (e.g. Health and Safety Executive, transport and utility companies). are "co-operating bodies" who while less likely to be involved in the heart of planning work, will be heavily involved in incidents that affect their sector. Therefore, Category 2 responders have a lesser set of duties - co-operating and sharing relevant information with other Category 1 and 2 responders.

It is intended that Category 1 and 2 organisations will come together to form Local Resilience Forums (based on police areas) which will help co-ordination and co-operation between responders at the local level.

The bulk of Part 1 of the Act was brought into force in November 2005 (the duty on local authorities to provide advice and assistance to business and voluntary organisations about business continuity management commences in May 2006).

Part 2 of the Act updates the 1920 Emergency Powers Act to reflect the developments in the intervening years and the current and future risk profile. It allows for the making of temporary special legislation (emergency regulations) to help deal with the most serious of emergencies. The use of emergency powers is a last resort option and planning arrangements at the local level should not assume that emergency powers will be made available. Their use is subject to a robust set of safeguards - they can only be deployed in exceptional circumstances.

As well as the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 there are also a number of regulations that place a duty on the local authority to produce emergency plans to meet identified specific risks. These are as follows:

Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1999 (COMAH)

Derived from a previous set of regulations; the Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazard Regulations 1984 (CIMAH) regulations are part of European legislation, the Seveso II directive and its successors.

There are two levels of application of COMAH, low tier and top tier. Low tier sites are required to submit a safety case and on-site emergency plans to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Top tier sites are not only required to submit a safety case and on-site plan, but must also provide the local authority with information to enable it to produce an off-site emergency response plan.

Major Accident Control Regulation (MACR)

MACR are the military equivalent of the COMAH regulations. These regulations require a safety case and on-site emergency plan produced by the site operator and an off-site emergency plan produced by the local authority. The basis behind the regulations was that the plans should be as good as if not better than the COMAH plans.

Pipeline Safety Regulations 1996 (PSR)

These regulations apply to pipelines carrying hazardous substances above specified pressures. The plans require the operator to supply information to the local authority in order for it to produce emergency response plans to any incident originating from the pipeline. Wiltshire currently has seven pipelines with an approximate total length of 110 Km.

Radiation Emergency Preparedness and Public Information Regulations (REPPIR) 2001

The Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations 2001 establishes a framework of emergency preparedness measures to ensure to ensure that members of the public are:

properly informed and prepared, in advance, about what to do in the unlikely event of a radiation emergency occurring, and provided with information if a radiation emergency actually occurs.

Contact Details

Email: emergencyplanning@wiltshire.gov.uk
Telephone: 01225 713159
Fax: 01225 713156
Postal Address:
Emergency Planning Unit
Wiltshire Council
County Hall
Trowbridge
Wiltshire
BA14 8JD