ABOUT US

The Civil Contingencies Act (2004) and associated Regulations and Guidance provides the basis for a robust emergency planning infrastructure across the country and introduced the consistency in planning arrangements that is required to have real resilience to face the challenges ahead.

The Act lists organisations to be included in two categories. Category 1 Responders will have duties placed on them including assessing risk, put in place emergency plans and Business Continuity Management arrangements, sharing information with the public, warning, informing and advising the public during and after an emergency. They include local authorities, emergency services, NHS Bodies and the Environment Agency.

Category 2 Responders include the utilities providers - gas, electricity, water and communications, transport providers - rail, highways, airports, harbours and ports, the Health & Safety Executive, and the Strategic Health Authority, these organisations are placed under the lesser duties, mainly co-operating and sharing information with organisations in Category 1.

The principal mechanism for multi-agency co-operation under the Act is the Local Resilience Forum (LRF), based on each police area. The forum is a process by which the organisations on which the duty falls co-operate with each other. It does not have a separate legal personality, it does not have powers to direct its members.

Whilst the term LRF is a new one, the operation of such a forum is not new to Cumbria. Previously known as the Cumbria Major Emergency Co-ordination Group (MECG).

The aims of the Cumbria Local Resilience Forum are as follows:-

• To determine strategy and policy matters relevant to major incident/disaster planning and the management of joint training and exercising.
• To promote harmonisation of plans and procedures of the organisations that makeup the combined response.
• To provide a forum for Category 1 and Category 2 responders to consult, collaborate, disclose information and co-operate in order to review the implications of a multi-agency response to major incidents, and thus develop and enhance the working practices of those agencies.