General Arrangements
An emergency might be described as an event or situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare or serious damage to the environment or war, or terrorism, which threatens serious damage to the security of the United Kingdom. Examples of emergencies are floods, rail crashes and industrial action.
Principles of response in Scotland
The arrangement for handling civil emergencies in Scotland, and the rest of the United Kingdom, is based on the principles of Integrated Emergency Management which addresses the consequences of emergencies, not their causes. The underlying aim of IEM is to prepare flexible and adaptable arrangements that will enable effective management of a multi-agency response to any crisis in Scotland. Another underlying principle of emergency response is that of subsidiarity that is response is founded on a "bottom-up" approach. It is local responders that provide the emergency response. The role of Scottish and UK Government is to support and reinforce the efforts of local responders.
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