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Tendring District Council's Emergency Planning duties have
been placed upon it by the creation of the
Civil Contingencies Act 2004.
The purpose of the Act is to establish a new statutory framework
for civil protection at the local level. Local responders are the
building block of resilience in the UK, and the Act will enhance
existing arrangements by:
- Establishing a clear set of roles and responsibilities for
local responders;
- Giving greater structure and consistency to local civil
protection activity; and
- Establishing a sound basis for performance management at a
local level.
Under the Act all Local Authorities are classed as Category 1
Responders. Category 1 responders are the organisations at the core
of the response to most emergencies.
Category 1 responders include:
- Local authorities (Essex County Council & Tendring District
Council)
- Government Agencies (Environment Agency)
- Emergency Services (Essex Police Force, Essex County Fire and
Rescue Service & Essex Ambulance Service)
- Health Bodies (Essex Primary Care Trusts)
This means that local authorities have the same duty in planning
for a major incident as the emergency services.
The duties of category 1 responders include:
- Assessing the risk of emergencies occurring and using 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 are "co-operating bodies" who while
less likely to be involved in the heart of planning work but will
be heavily involved in incidents that affect their sector.
Category 2 Responders include:
- Utilities
- Transport Companies
- Other Government Departments (i.e. HSE)
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.
A short guide to the Act can be viewed here.
(link will open a pdf document in a new
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