-
I am writing to seek your comments on Regulations and complementary guidance
to be made under Part 1 of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. Drafts of the
Regulations and Guidance are attached.
-
The Scottish Executive is fully committed to improving the resilience of
Scotland’s communities to disruptive challenges posed by natural or
man made emergencies. The commitment recognises that the response to major
emergencies will be led at the local level and that a large number of organisations
have a vital part to play in a combined response.
-
Part 1 of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 provides powers to Scottish
Ministers to make Regulations regarding local arrangements for civil protection.
Part 1 also requires local responders to co-operate, share information and
assess the risks of emergency in their areas. Having identified the risk
of emergencies, particular local responders are required to work together
to make arrangements to minimise their effects by warning and informing
the public and carrying out their activities in a co-ordinated way. Local
authorities have an additional duty to advise and assist in the promotion
of business continuity planning in their areas.
-
The Act identifies the organisations that play a vital role in civil protection
throughout the UK. Part 1 establishes a statutory framework for civil protection
at the local level, setting out clear roles and responsibilities for front
line organisations in preparing for emergencies. These organisations are
referred to as ‘local responders’.
-
It is the Executive’s policy to adopt the principles of Integrated
Emergency Management and a combined response at local level. IEM and Strategic
Co-ordinating Groups have been a feature of Scottish emergency planning
for many years. Implementation of the Act will build upon the good practice
and partnership working that currently underpin emergency response in Scotland.
The draft Regulations and Guidance are designed to ensure a consistency
in approach and to allow each local responder to make an effective contribution
to a combined response.
- Briefly the proposals are as follows:
Co-operation and information sharing
Local responders will be required to co-operate individually and through
a Strategic Co-ordinating Group of senior managers in each of Scotland’s
eight police force areas. The Co-ordinating Groups will work closely with
the Scottish Emergency Co-ordinating Committee in both preparation and response
to emergencies.
Local responders will be required to share information to assist in performing
duties under the Act, subject to provisions related to the sensitivity of
information in matters related to personal or commerciall confidentiality
or national security.
Risk assessment
Category 1 responders will be required to assess the risk of emergencies
occurring in their areas and collaborate with their Strategic Co-ordinating
Group partners in producing a Community Risk Register.
Planning to respond to emergency
Category 1 responders will be required to make arrangements to carry out
their normal functions and, if necessary, use them to respond, to emergencies
identified by their risk assessment. In addition arrangements must be made
to warn and inform the public about an emergency.
Publishing plans and assessments
The Community Risk Register, emergency plans and arrangements to warn the
public should be published insofar as publication will assist in preventing
or reducing the effects of an emergency
Advice and assistance on business continuity management for business and
voluntary organisations
Local authorities will be required to provide general advice on business
continuity management. If requested by a business or voluntary organisation
Councils may provide more detailed advice or refer those requesting information
to a business continuity consultant.
The Consultation papers
-
The policy development process for the draft Regulations and Guidance has
been undertaken in close consultation with a range of stakeholders. Their
involvement has been important in the development of the regulatory guidance
which is designed to assist practitioners in implementing the requirements
of the Act.
-
There are three documents in the consultation package:
a) This consultation letter;
b) Draft Regulations;
c) Draft Regulatory Guidance.
-
The purpose of the documents is to give an overview of the draft Regulations
and associated Guidance in support of the Act and to invite your views.
-
The draft Regulations are part of the statutory framework. The Regulations
spell out the requirements of the Act in more detail.
-
The Regulatory Guidance is statutory guidance outlining the seven main
duties, in Part 1 of the Act, which relate to the preparatory phases of
civil protection and how those duties should be interpreted.
-
A separate overview of the proposals for Scottish Guidance is included.
Scottish guidance will form a living document that will evolve as the environment
in which it is set changes. The Scottish Guidance will include the final
version of the Regulatory Guidance. It will also address current and emerging
risks, describe good practice, disseminate lessons learned from exercises
or response to emergencies and formalise requirements under the Civil Contingencies
Act. The overview contains, as an example, guidance on Risk Assessment.
Whilst this document does not form part of the formal consultation, your
views on its structure and content would be welcomed.
Resources for Responders
-
Ministers do not expect the Act to impose any significant new burdens on
local responders. The main purpose of the Act is to put current arrangements
on a statutory footing and systemise good practice. However they would be
prepared to review the position on funding in the light of this consultation.
-
If it is clear that there are new burdens that cannot be met by local responders
spending up to GAE (in the case of local authority services) or their spending
limit for other responders and/or pooling resources with other responders
they will look at the possibility of increasing allocations in 2006-07 using
end year flexibility, subject to availability of resources. It is important
however that responders produce very specific evidence to back up any argument
that the Act does impose continuing new burdens, and give an idea of how
much they expect these to cost.
Responding to this consultation paper
-
The primary audience for this consultation is local responders who will
be responsible for interpreting the provisions of the Act and ensuring they
are understood and implemented.
-
The consultation period is 12 weeks and the deadline for responses is 25
April. Further details of the consultation process can be found at the end
of this document.
-
We would welcome views on the draft Regulations and Guidance and the questions
listed in Annex A to this letter. These should
be sent by e-mail, letter or fax to:
Andy Omand
Scottish Executive
Justice Department — Civil Contingencies Division
Room 1W
St Andrew’s House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
civilcontingencies@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
If you have any queries you can contact Andy on 0131 244 2187
-
We would be grateful if you would fill out the attached responder’s
information form and enclose it with your response. It would be helpful
if you could clearly indicate in your response which parts of the consultation
you are responding to by using the regulation, or paragraph numbers as appropriate.
-
In addition to the written consultation the Civil Contingencies Division
will be meeting with Strategic Co-ordinating Groups and other bodies to
discuss the draft Regulations and Guidance. If other groups feel it would
be helpful to them in forming their views we would be willing to meet them
if possible. Please feel free to contact Andy Omand if you would like to
try to arrange a meeting.
-
This consultation, and all other SE consultation exercises, can be viewed
online at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations.
You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest
public internet access point is.
-
The Scottish Executive now has an email alert system for SE
consultations (SEconsult).
This system allows stakeholder individuals and organisations to register
and receive a weekly email containing details of all new SE
consultations (including web links). SEconsult
complements, but in no way replaces SE distribution lists, and is designed
to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all SE
consultations activity, and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity
to those of most interest. We would encourage you to register.
- If respondents believe that any other bodies should be included in the consultation
or exercise, they should advise Andy Omand at the address above.
Access to consultation responses
- We will make all responses available to the public in the Scottish Executive
Library and on the Scottish
Executive consultation web pages by 20 May, unless confidentiality is
requested. All responses not marked confidential will be checked for any potentially
defamatory material before being logged in the library or placed on the website.
Next steps
-
The Scottish Executive will begin the process of reviewing and revising
the Regulations and Guidance as soon as the consultation ends. The work
will be completed as quickly as possible in order to clarify expectations
of local responders at the earliest stage.
-
It is anticipated that the Regulations will come into force in October.
Q1 Do the draft Regulations strike the right balance between prescription
and discretion?
Q5 Do you have any comments on Chapter 4 — Business Continuity and
Emergency Planning?
Q10 Do you have any comments on the structure and design of the proposed
Scottish Guidance?
Q11 Are there additional aspects of guidance you would wish to be included
in Scottish Guidance?
