Emergency Preparedness and Resilience

A fire and rescue service must:

1. align to all relevant Cabinet Office National Resilience Standards for Local Resilience Forums (LRFs)
2. have plans that enable it to prepare for emergencies and take preventative or pre-emptive actions as required, and that:
   1. are based on a robust risk assessment of foreseeable risks to the local area, informed by the National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) and its Community Risk Registers;
   2. contain supporting materials which reflect and embed JESIP;
   3. align to other multi-agency plans, and where relevant meet legislative requirements. These plans may include those for Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH), Pipeline Safety Regulations (PSR) and Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations (REPPIR);
   4. have a clear activation and notification process for communicating with other Category 1 and 2 responders, organisations and the public, to enhance cross-border awareness and interoperability for preparedness, response and recovery arrangements;
   5. have robust, embedded and flexible recovery management arrangements in place as detailed in the Local Recovery Management National Resilience Standard #13;
   6. contain protocols aligned with the LRF protocols and guidance for leaders and practitioners about the establishment of recovery and coordination groups (RCGs) and managing activity between phases from response, recovery and to stand down;
   7. have clear, inclusive and agreed governance arrangements for both single-service and national resilience capabilities in line with the National Coordination and Advisory Framework (NCAF), including defined roles and responsibilities;
   8. evidence assurance of its resilience capabilities, validated by regular testing using a risk-based exercise programme, either as a single service or with other relevant responder organisations at operational, tactical and strategic levels;
   9. are reviewed and updated periodically with relevant partners; and
   10. are classified in line with the Government Security Classifications dependent upon the nature of the plan and exist in a format that makes them accessible to relevant stakeholders when required.
3. collaborate with partners to develop site-specific emergency plans which are based on a shared and common understanding of local risks, associated planning assumptions and the NSRA;
4. recruit, train, develop and maintain a competent and professional workforce to enable the service to carry out its role in preparedness, response and recovery to emergencies;
5. have access to a suitable and secure system to enable it to share and make information available and accessible to partners and stakeholders, when required;
6. have business continuity plans (BCP) in place relating to all critical functions, that:
   1. demonstrate a clear procedure for invoking the BCP and set out the core of a response to emergencies; and
   2. are reviewed and exercised periodically
7. as part of the response to an emergency contribute to the effective operation of a Strategic Co-ordination Centre (SCC) and Strategic Co-ordinating Group (SCG) and in line with National Resilience Standards #11 and #12.

A fire and rescue service should:

8. evidence a clear rationale for the balance between generic and site-specific emergency planning for defined risks;
9. adopt the principles of integrated emergency management to effectively anticipate and assess risks and prevent, prepare, respond and recover from emergencies;
10. develop plans which:
    1. follow a common template, including use of action cards, diagrammatic instructions, detachable annexes and directories; and
    2. include an escalation process to request additional involvement and support, such as mutual aid and national resilience capabilities.
11. optimise the opportunity to gather learning, such as debrief outcomes following emergency response, training or exercising and share them on the available systems, such as Joint Organisational Learning (JOL) and National Operational Learning (NOL);
12. have a process in place to act on any learning received from systems such as JOL and NOL to drive innovation and continuous improvement and enhance future performance;
13. maximise opportunities gained from supporting the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) network by sharing learning and experiences, collaborating with others and contributing to the continual improvement of preparedness, response and recovery activities;
14. contribute and support appropriate national campaigns and initiatives, where resources are available.

A fire and rescue service may:

15. share plans with other services or partners for independent peer review for continual improvement purposes.

1. The public are reassured that services are resilient, prepared and able to respond to emergencies and maintain its critical functions during a disruptive event
2. Effective contribution to multi-agency response to emergencies because of a standardised and nationally approved approach to emergency preparedness
3. Effective inter- and intra-operability because of collaboration and information sharing with other services and partners
4. Enables services and partners to identify and address potential capability gaps and areas of good practice

This Fire Standard reflects only the most appropriate legislation to this topic. We recognise that fire and rescue services must comply with a broader list of legislation to undertake their duties, which would be applicable to all standards. View the legislation which applies to all Fire Standards.

• Civil Contingencies Act
• Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH)
• Fire and Rescue Services (Emergencies) (England) Order
• Pipeline Safety Regulations
• Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations (REPPIR)
• Fire and Rescue National Framework for England

• Community Risk Management Planning Fire Standard
• Code of Ethics Fire Standard
• Operational Preparedness Fire Standard
• National Occupational Standards – NFCC

• National Resilience Standards for Local Resilience Forums (LRFs)
• Emergency preparedness – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) – restricted access via Resilience Direct
• National Risk Register – public access
• JESIP
• Joint Organisational Learning (JOL) Guidance
• Emergency responder interoperability: lexicon – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• ISO 22301:2019 – Security and resilience — Business continuity management systems
• NCSC Cyber Essentials Certification
• Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF)
• National Resilience Strategy (NRS) – link to be provided when available
• National Coordination and Advisory Framework (NCAF)
• The Business Continuity Institutes Good Practice Guidelines
• The UK Government Resilience Framework – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• Government Security Classifications