Less than half of all UK businesses have a business continuity plan in place

Research from AXA has revealed that 46 percent of UK businesses do not have a business continuity plan. Additionally, 17 percent of businesses claim to have been affected by a disaster in the past and that just over one in five of these companies took longer than a week to recover. Around 8 percent claim it took them over six months before they were up and running again.

Doug Barnett, risk control strategy manager at AXA said: “Businesses face a number of challenges and risks, and they need to do everything possible to reduce the chances of these happening. They also need to have an effective plan in place to deal with them if they do. Every year, thousands of enterprises fold but some of these could be saved if they had a strong business continuity plan in place.”

“Even if a business does have plans in place it is important that companies tweak them so that they are prepared for potential seasonal risks. At this time of year most people take their annual holiday so owner/managers need to ensure that appropriate measures are put in place – for example, that key staff have access to contact details, such as mobile number and hotel details, and that they have delegated authority to a responsible member of staff who is familiar with the company’s continuity plans.”

On a regional basis, businesses in the Midlands and South West England appear to be the most prepared for managing disasters as 63 percent of enterprises there have business continuity plans. Companies in the South East appear to be the least prepared as only 48 percent have plans in place, the lowest in the country. See table below:

Percentage of businesses that have a business continuity plan in place:
Midlands 63 percent
South West 63 percent
Scotland and N Ireland 58 percent
Wales 56 percent
The North 52 percent
London 49 percent
South East 48 percent

In addition to urging organisations without business continuity plans to develop them, AXA is also encouraging those businesses with plans to review them as it is concerned that many are insufficient.

AXA’s research found that of those businesses with a business continuity plan in place, only 43 percent obtained professional advice in developing them and that only 30 percent have actually been tested. Furthermore, of those that have been reviewed, one in five has only ever been tested once and a further 40 percent are only tested once a year. This might help explain why only 42 percent of companies that have suffered a crisis in the past and which had continuity plans in place said that they had been effective.

AXA’s website www.axa4business.co.uk offers free advice to businesses on a range of issues including developing business continuity plans. This includes a business continuity calendar which highlights everyday business risks, a business continuity guide for small businesses and ‘Business 4 Tomorrow Toolkit’ that draws on AXA’s wealth of experience and expertise to provide small businesses with a simple and practical approach to business continuity planning.

•Date: 16th August 2005 • Region: UK • Type: Article •Topic: BC statistics
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