How the Council prepares for emergencies

We have a statutory duty to plan and train for emergencies under the Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) 2004.

The Emergency Planning Unit works to meet these duties.

Our duty to prepare

The Act places the following duties on a Council:

• Assess the risk of emergencies occurring
• Put in place emergency plans to deal with these risks
• Put in place business continuity plans and management to keep the Council running in an emergency
• Make information available to the public to warn, inform and advise them about emergencies
• Share information with others to enhance co-ordination and efficiency
• Co-operate with others to deal with emergencies in a better way
• Provide advice to businesses and voluntary organisations on business continuity

How we work with others

The key to a successful response to an emergency or major incident is for the emergency services, local authorities and other agencies (such as health, gas, electricity and voluntary organisations) to work together as a multi-agency team.

Guidance on how we should all work together can be found in the London Emergency Services Liaison Panel (LESLP) and the Major Incident Procedure Manual.

As well as planning, training and exercising with other responders, we take part in the following multi-agency groups:

• South West London Emergency Planning Group - A regular meeting between the emergency planning staff of Sutton, Richmond, Merton, Kingston and Wandsworth councils. In the event of a major incident affecting one or more of the boroughs, support can be requested from others in the group.
• Borough Resilience Forum - This group focuses on emergency planning issues affecting the borough. It includes the council, emergency services, NHS, rail, utility companies, and voluntary organisations such as the British Red Cross.