Emergency plan
Pages in Emergency plan
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Community risk register, types of emergencies and The Civil Contingencies Act
- 3. What is a major incident?
- 4. Who is involved in emergency response?
- 5. Phases of an incident
- 6. Response phases: Where? and What?
- 7. Welfare
- 8. Communication and media management
- 9. You are here: Response phase: How?
- 10. Staff welfare and finance
- 11. Recovery
- 12. Appendix
9. Response phase: How?
Requirements and resources available
13.1 Logging
Logging is a vital element of any emergency response for several reasons. Firstly, it ensures that actions are not lost and that staff handovers run more smoothly. Critically, if there is a need for an inquest or enquiry after an incident it is important that you can present a written record of all the decisions you made and why you made them.
13.2 Mutual Aid
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council may be required to give assistance to other Local Authorities responding to emergencies. Informal arrangements exist between neighbouring authorities for mutual aid in the event of a crossboundary incident. Districts and Boroughs may want to share officer resources during emergencies; this could range from Incident Liaison Officer (ILO) level through to tactical level staff in the BECC (Borough Emergency Coordination Centre).
13.3 Military Aid to the Civil Authority (MACA)
The Armed Forces’ national structure, organisation, skills, equipment and training can be of benefit to the civil authorities in managing the response to, and recovery from, major emergencies. This support is governed by the Military Aid to the Civil Authority (MACA) arrangements. However, it should be made clear that the Armed Forces maintain no standing forces for MACA tasks and hence, cannot make a commitment that guarantees assistance to meet specific emergencies.
There are three criteria for the provision of MACA:
- Military aid should always be the last resort. The use of mutual aid, other agencies, and the private sector must be otherwise considered as insufficient or be unsuitable.
- The Civil Authority lacks the required level of capability to fulfil the task, and it is unreasonable or prohibitively expensive to expect it to develop one.
- The Civil Authority has a capability, but the need to act is urgent and it lacks readily available resources.
Surrey County Council is normally responsible for the activation of the military through the County Emergency Planning & Resilience Team (EMRT).