Agenda item

ES19011

The Emergency Planning and Business Continuity Service update report was written and presented by David Tait (Emergency Planning and Corporate Resilience Lead).

The report had been written to update Members on the Emergency Planning and Business Continuity Service, following a previous report on 16^th January 2018.

The report was also presented to introduce Members to the Standardisation Programme which was designed to standardise London Local Authority emergency response capabilities.

The report outlined the Standardisation Programme and outlined the training and exercises that staff had taken part in during 2018. The report also briefed Members on the work of the Borough Resilience Forum.

Several large documents had been appended to the report. The first one of these was the ‘London Local Authorities—Concept of Operations for Emergency Response and Recovery’. This document outlined the plans for the standardisation of the roles of Gold and Silver command structures, as well as the standardisation of generic Control Room training.

The second document that had been appended to the report was the LGA’s ‘A Councillor’s Guide to Civil Emergencies’. This document had been drafted to provide guidance for Cabinet and Councillors when a civil emergency had occurred. Mr Tait stated that a training package was being developed by London Resilience to support the document and was scheduled to be rolled out at the end of the year. Mr Tait said he would offer this training to all councillors once the package was made available.

A third document was appended which was the ‘Resilience Standards for London Local Government’. This was a draft document that had gone out for consultation. The end of the consultation period was 28^th February 2019. The aim of this document was to try and improve standards, outcomes and practices. Mr Tait was hopeful that Members would provide some feedback on the consultation.

A Member referred to section 3.11 of the report that was related to Training and Exercises. She asked if going forward, more detail could be provided regarding the outcomes of the training exercises. Mr Tait said that the training and exercises had been well received, and had helped to develop and cement relationships. The importance of perception and communication was acknowledged. Members highlighted the need for them to be properly briefed and trained so that they would know how to respond in emergency situations.

A Member noted section 3.13 of the report and the reference to ‘Exercise Peregrine’ that had taken place at Biggin Hill Airport on 1^st November 2018. He asked if a similar exercise was planned regarding an aircraft crashing outside of an airport. The Executive Director for Environment and Community Services stated that the BRF (Bromley Resilience Forum) possessed a risk assessment document that referred to this, and listed the main agencies that would need to be involved in an emergency response. This would likely to be a table top exercise.

A Member asked if Councillors could be provided with a concise document that would provide guidance on what to do and say in an emergency situation. It was noted that the Gold and Silver commands, in conjunction with LBB’s Communications Team would determine what sort of response should be provided.

The Chairman referred to the Councillor’s Guide to Civil Emergencies and to the section dealing with possible questions for scrutiny committees to consider. The Chairman asked Mr Tait if in due course he could disseminate the answers to the questions. 

RESOLVED that 

1) Members should be provided with training concerning their roles and responsibilities during civil emergencies.

2) Members should be involved in Table Top exercises.

3) Consideration is given to providing Councillors with Action Cards.

4) Information relating to the ‘Safer City’ exercise of March 2018 is disseminated to members of the Committee. 

5) With reference to the ‘Councillor’s Guide to Civil Emergencies’ and the ‘questions for consideration by the scrutiny committee’—Mr Tait should disseminate the answers to said questions in due course.