Emergency plan

2. Community risk register and types of emergencies

This plan has been created to facilitate an Reigate & Banstead Borough Council response to an emergency in relation to risks as outlined in the Surrey Community Risk Register (CRR). The Surrey CRR is created and managed by Surrey’s Local Resilience Forum and outlines the risks within the County, based on the National Risk Assessment and National Risk Planning Assumptions. The Surrey CRR is also published to provide public information about these risks within the County, and the control measures in place to mitigate their impact. The Register has been published in response to the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. Further information can be found at Surrey's Local Resilience Forum (surreycc.gov.uk).

Risks have been assessed for the likelihood of the event happening (assessed by Central Government) and the potential impact that it may have within the county (assessed locally by a multi-agency Risk Assessment Working Group on behalf of the Surrey Local Resilience Forum).

The types of emergencies:

Risk rating - very high:

• National Electricity Transmission Failure - A total national blackout due to the loss of the GB national electricity transmission system.
• Fluvial Flooding - A significant river flood event or series of concurrent events across multiple geographic regions following a sustained period of heavy rainfall.
• Surface Water Flooding - Surface water flooding in a large metropolitan area caused by a warm unstable atmosphere.
• High Temperatures and Heatwaves - Five consecutive days with maximum temperatures exceeding 35°C.
• Low Temperatures and Heavy Snow - Multiple regions of the UK subject to low temperatures and snow.
• Severe Space Weather - A severe space weather event lasting for one to two weeks with impacts including regional electricity blackouts.
• Pandemic Influenza - An unmitigated pandemic with an unassumed transmission route and a high attack rate, with 4% of symptomatic infections requiring hospital.
• Emerging Infectious Disease - Outbreak originating outside of the UK with cases occurring amongst returning travelers and their close contacts.

Risk rating - high:

• Wildfire - A sustained and widespread extreme wildfire requiring protracted multi-agency attendance over 4-7 days with a significant impact on responder resilience and business as usual activities.
• Major Social Care Provider Failure – Wintertime cascading failure of a major domiciliary care provider and multiple minor domiciliary care providers across multiple local authorities.
• Food Supply Contamination – A major contamination incident involving a microbiological pathogen in the food chain.
• Storms – Storm force winds affecting multiple regions for at least 6 hours during a working day.
• Poor Air Quality - Poor air quality event with high pollution concentrations.
• Major Outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease - Infected animals which are not yet exhibiting clinical signs are sold or moved to other premises before the disease is detected, resulting in multiple, widely dispersed outbreaks.
• Major Outbreak of highly pathogenic Avian Influenza - An outbreak of a highly virulent strain of HPAI where disease is introduced into multiple large-scale poultry businesses, through direct or indirect contact with wild birds.
• Public Disorder – Large scale public disorder at sites in a single city or multiple cities, occurring concurrently over several days.

Risk rating - medium:

• Rail Accident - A rail accident causing casualties and fatalities, damage to property and infrastructure within the affected area and potential evacuation of those affected.
• Accident Involving High Consequence Dangerous Goods - A road tanker containing dangerous goods are involved in an accident leading to a fire/explosion.
• Aviation Collision - An airborne collision involving two commercial aircraft.
• Malicious Drone Incident - The malicious use of a single drone at one major airport in the UK.
• Simultaneous loss of all fixed and mobile forms of communication - As a result of a hazard materialising, such as a severe storm or flooding, all mobile and fixed-line (landline and internet) connections are lost immediately.
• Failure of Gas Supply Infrastructure - A technical failure or accident leading to significant loss of UK gas supplies.
• Radiation Exposure from Transported, Stolen or Lost Goods - Accidental exposure to radioactive sources which may have been stolen, lost or transported by a legal owner without proper regard to radiation safety regulations.
• Accidental fire or explosion at an onshore major hazard (COMAH) site - A major fire and/or explosion occurs at a COMAH site that produces, stores or uses significant amounts of flammable or explosive substances.
• Accidental fire or explosion at an onshore major accident hazard pipeline - Fire or explosion at a gas pipeline following ignition of flammable gas under high pressure.
• Accidental work related (laboratory) release of a hazardous pathogen - An infectious influenza type biological pathogen is inadvertently released from a containment laboratory in an urban area.
• Reservoir / Dam Collapse - A reservoir or dam collapse without warning resulting in almost instantaneous flooding.
• Water Infrastructure Failure or Loss of Drinking Water - Failure of water infrastructure or loss of drinking water caused by the complete and relatively sudden loss of piped water supply or the degradation of the piped supply such that it is unfit for human consumption even after boiling.
• Major Fire - A major fire resulting in significant loss of life or injury.
• Volcanic Eruption - Volcanic ash incursions for up to 25 days resulting in sporadic and temporary closures of significant parts of UK air space.
• Earthquake (UK) – Earthquake activity that results in ground shaking with an intensity of 7 or above on the European Macro seismic Scale (EMS) that causes damage to buildings and infrastructure.
• Drought - Drought as a result of a lack of rainfall over several years, leading to water shortages.
• Major Outbreak of African Horse Sickness - An infected horse is imported and bitten by midges, which carry the virus to other horses. By the time AHS is identified, it is well established in geographically dispersed midge populations around the UK.
• Major Outbreak of African Swine Fever - Incursions of an acute strain of ASF into the feral pig population, which spreads before detection to domestic and commercial pig farms.
• Major Outbreak of Plant Pest (Agrilus Planipennis) - An outbreak in a mature, mixed woodland, which has remained undetected for five years. Initial surveillance shows that the beetle has spread beyond a 100 x 100m area, and it is found that the spread has occurred over multiple other sites.
• Industrial Action (Firefighters) - A national fire strike in England for a continuous 8-day period with loss of life directly attributable to a weakened response by individual fire and rescue services, and reputational impact on the Government.
• Industrial action (Prison Staff) - Industrial Action by prison officers leading to significant safety and security issues in prisons in England and Wales
• Industrial Action (Fuel Supply) - Actual or threatened significant disruption to the distribution of fuel by road, including as a result of industrial action by fuel tanker drivers.
• Reception and integration of British Nationals arriving from overseas - Reception and integration of destitute/vulnerable British Nationals who are not normally resident in the UK and are unable to be accommodated by family/friends.

Risk rating - low:

• Insolvency Affecting Fuel Supply - A fuel refinery, importation, storage or distribution company becomes insolvent.
• Radiation Release from Overseas Nuclear Site - Accident at an overseas nuclear site with impacts that reach the UK.
• Major Outbreak of Plant Pest (Xylella Fastidiosa) - An outbreak of Xylella found in an area containing 3-5 plant nurseries and evidence of possible spread of the bacterium on plants and plant products to multiple premises across the UK
• Industrial Action (Public Transport) - Strike action by key rail or London Underground staff (e.g., signallers) resulting in the total shutdown of very significant amounts of the national rail network.

District and borough lead agency role

• From the list above, districts and boroughs are listed as being the lead agency for earthquakes only.
• As the lead agency it would be expected that the Council can provide a representative to chair any Tactical Coordinating Groups and any Strategic Coordinating Groups that take place following an earthquake.

This plan should remain flexible enough to be able to respond to any of the emergencies above. This plan is supported by internal and LRF Hazard specific plans.

3. The Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) 2004

The Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) 2004 and associated regulations and guidance is the key legislation governing emergency planning and business continuity. The chief requirement of the CCA 2004 is to maintain plans to ensure that, if an emergency occurs or is likely to occur, the Council can deliver its functions so far as necessary or desirable for the purpose of preventing the emergency, reducing, controlling, or mitigating its effect, or taking other action in connection with it.

Reigate & Banstead Borough Council is a local authority and is therefore classed as a Category 1 Responder. Category 1 Responders are those organisations at the core of emergency response (and include the emergency services, The Environment Agency and NHS bodies).

Category 1 responders are subject to all the civil protection duties outlined below:

• 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
• provide advice and assistance to businesses and voluntary organisations about business continuity management (local authorities only)

The CCA 2004 covers Business Continuity, requiring local authorities to be able to continue providing an acceptable level of day-to-day services, even during an incident. This process is detailed in the Council’s Business Continuity Policy and Plans.

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 establishes a single framework for civil protection in the United Kingdom. The framework describes integrated emergency management and comprises six related activities: anticipation, assessment, prevention, preparation, response, and recovery.

Part 2 of the Act deals with emergency powers. It permits the introduction by Government of temporary special legislation to help deal with the most catastrophic of emergencies. Part 2 of the Act is not covered in this document.

The principal mechanism for the Council to participate in multi-agency co-operation under the Act is the Surrey Local Resilience Forum (SLRF) that meets at least once every quarter. It has no legal standing but acts as a mechanism to:

• Write multi-agency plans identifying roles and responsibilities.
• Lay out multi agency command and control structures
• Support warning and informing
• Assess Risk
• Facilitates multi-agency training and exercising

For further details concerning the CCA 2004, see the emergency planning webpages.