Civil Contingencies Act 2004

The Civil Contingencies Act was passed in November 2004, which is replacing the outdated legislation that has previously controlled Civil Protection. A complete version of the legislation can be viewed on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister website.  The Act has been divided into two parts, part one deals civil protection at a local level while part two examines emergency powers.  In the legislation "emergencies" are defined as:

"An event or situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare; the environment; or the security of the United Kingdom or of a place in the United Kingdom."

Part 1: Local arrangements for civil protection

Under the Civil Contingencies Act there are two specific groups of responders, each having different responsibilities.  A list of all the agencies can be found below: 

Category 1 responders: local authorities, emergency services, health authorities and services, and some government departments and agencies; 

Category 2 responders: utilities such as the suppliers of electricity, gas, water, telecoms and transport.

As a category 1 responder Local Authorities are required to prepare and maintain emergency plans to prevent emergencies, mitigate their effects and to take other action in the event of an emergency. The plans could be specific to particular events (i.e. flooding at a particular location) or generic plans, which plan set out a response to a wide range of possible scenarios. Specific plans rely on the general provisions included in the generic plan.  A list of the specific responsibilities of the Local Authority are outlined below: 

1. Assess the risk of emergencies occurring and use this to inform contingency planning
2. Put in place emergency plans
3. Put in place Business Continuity Management arrangements
4. 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
5. Share information with other local responders to enhance co-ordination
6. Co-operate with other local responders to enhance co-ordination and efficiency; and
7. Provide advice and assistance to businesses and voluntary organisations about business continuity management.
   

East Hampshire District Council, along with other Hampshire Authorities, have signed a service level agreement with Hampshire County Council to hand over some of the legal reponsibility.  Historically all of the emergency planning work has been carried out at a County level and therefore they have a great deal more experience and equipment than Local Authorities.  The service level agreement requires Hamsphire County Council to fulfill various aspects of the CCA, although this does not include Business Continuity advice to local businesses and the voluntary sector.   

Category two responders have only one statutory duty under the Act, which is to provide information to category one responders to help them in their business continuity planning and emergency response activities.

The Act introduces two key new concepts:

Local Resilience Forum –  are based on the local Police areas and chaired by the local Chief Constable or other senior officer.  The LRF has been suggested as the “principal forum for multi-agency cooperation under the Act.”  Its purpose is to ensure effective delivery of those duties that need to be developed in a multi-agency environment. Category 1 responders should attend meetings or be “adequately represented”. Category 2 responders should be engaged “where they can add value”. The LRF meets regularly and Local Authorities are represented by one District Liason Officer who feeds back to all of the Local Authorities. 

Community Risk Register – the CCA now requires for the first time risk assessment of the various hazards and threats in a particular area. This will include national concerns such as terrorism and avian flu, through to a local assessment of the risks of flooding or specific industrial hazards. The assessment is a responsibility of the local LRF and must be done jointly between responders, providing a basis for the prioritisation of work programmes and allocation of resources. There is a requirement to publish the risk assessment, to the extent necessary to reduce the impact of an emergency on the community.  Our LRF has now produced a draft form of of the community risk assessment and this should be available on this website shortly. 

Part 2: Emergency Powers

This means that the government or regional devolved bodies could create special temporary legislation, this will apply only in the part of the UK affected by the emergency, leaving those elsewhere unaffected.

There are restrictions in place which limit the extent of the emergency powers. It cannot for example prohibit industrial action or instigate military conscription or alter any aspect of criminal procedures.