Civil Contingencies Act
The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 delivers a single framework for civil protection in the United Kingdom designed to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
The Act improves improves the major incident planning process at a local level. It does this by building better contacts between agencies and improving the link between local areas and central government.
The Act identifies the roles and responsibilities of local responders, ensuring consistency in civil protection activity. Setting out these responsibilities helps to ensure that the frontline responders can deal with the full range of emergencies. Emergencies can range from localised major incidents through to catastrophic emergencies.
Duties upon Slough Borough Council
The main part of the Act clearly identifies the roles and responsibilities of local responders. Local councils have seven statutory duties. These are to:
- assess the risk of emergencies occurring and use this to inform contingency planning. This is collated at a local level to form a Community Risk Register
- 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; Slough Borough Council does this via the Thames Valley Local Resilience Forum.
- co-operate with other local responders to enhance co-ordination and efficiency, which Slough Borough Council does via the Thames Valley Local Resilience Forum
- provide advice and assistance to businesses and voluntary organisations about business continuity management.
Supplementary information
- Guidance on preparation and planning for emergencies: responsibilities of responder agencies and others
- Category 2 Responders - Overview of sectors and emergency planning arrangements
- Civil Contingencies Act: a short guide (PDF).
- Emergency Preparedness - the statutory guidance which supports Part 1 of the Act.
- Emergency Response and Recovery - non-statutory good-practice guidance.
- The Civil Contingencies Act 2004
- Explanatory Notes to the Civil Contingencies Act 2004
- The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (Contingency Planning) Regulations 2005 - These are the regulations which support Part 1 of the Act
Training
- The Emergency Planning College (EPC) is a training provider for emergency preparedness, attracting delegates with responsibility for preventing, planning for, responding to or recovering from a major incident. The EPC runs a starting out in Civil Protection course as well as courses on each of the specific duties under the Act, and on a range of other civil protection topics.