London Assembly report expresses concern at lack of business continuity planning in small businesses
Over 98 percent of London's businesses are small, employing fewer than twenty people, but most are under-prepared to survive a major incident or emergency. While the report acknowledges that some progress has been made, it finds that, overall, small businesses are poorly equipped to deal with an emergency; only one in three have a business continuity plan in place, compared to almost two in three larger organisations. Richard Barnes AM, who led the investigation on behalf of the London Assembly, said: “Small businesses are the capital’s lifeblood, generating a turnover of almost £150 billion – a quarter of the total for London every year. Yet many are almost totally unprepared to deal with a major incident or emergency. “Helping small businesses to prepare for the worst is a crucial part of London’s resilience planning and I therefore hope to see the recommendations in this report taken forward as a matter of urgency.” The report questions whether local authorities having sole responsibility - under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 - for informing and supporting small businesses in relation to business continuity is working. The investigation shows that while all 33 London boroughs have made some progress, many lack the capacity to make a significant difference to the preparedness of small businesses, and this is compounded by the fact that only a fraction of small businesses see their council as a major source of information anyway. Help may be at hand with the recent establishment of a new body by London local authorities – the Business Continuity Promotion Steering Group (BCPSG ). The BCPSG reports to the London Regional Resilience Forum (LRRF ), which is chaired by the Minister for London, with the Mayor of London as Deputy Chair. The report hails the establishment of the BCPSG as an excellent opportunity to build on existing good practice by boroughs, and ensure work is co-ordinated across London to maximise its effectiveness. The report’s key recommendations are: - The BCPSG should pilot schemes for distributing business continuity information in an engaging and practical format, recognising that a significant proportion of businesses may not use computers or other IT systems; - The BCPSG should consider how the City of London Corporation’s ‘buddy scheme’ could be extended, wherein large companies support their smaller neighbours in developing improvements to local resilience, for example by sharing a local evacuation site or a telephone cascade system; - London boroughs should be creative about promoting business continuity, for example, by doing so at the point of delivery of other services they provide, such as health and safety enforcement; by cross-agency working with the emergency services, since this helps to emphasise the severity of business continuity issues; and by promoting it through their own procurement processes. - The London Regional Resilience Forum should start discussions with major banks about disseminating information to their clients; and with insurers about the scope for giving incentives to clients adopting business continuity plans; - The Cabinet Office should re-examine the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and make specific proposals to encourage cooperation between local authorities and the emergency services in promoting business continuity. The investigation involved a survey of all London boroughs, research into the effect of major incidents in the UK on local small businesses, and meetings with key stakeholder organisations. All findings are available in the report. Prepared for the worst? Promoting business continuity to small businesses was formally agreed at a meeting of the Business Managements and Appointments Committee on 26 February 2008. View the webcast of the meeting at: http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/webcasts.jsp Download a PDF copy of the report here.
•Date: 28th February 2008• Region:UK •Type: Article •Topic: BC general
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