| Draft UK Civil Contingencies Bill report examined
The full 231 page report can be viewed here (PDF). The main highlights which are relevant
to the business continuity sector are: 1) The report agreed that with the general principle of the draft Bill, “namely that local bodies should have a statutory duty to make contingency plans for dealing with a wide range of emergencies and Government should have a role in ensuring national consistency.” However the joint committee criticised the Bill for lacking sufficient detail and for failing to provide adequate safeguards against potential misuse. The report stated that: “In the absence of publication of the regulations and guidance, we agree that the draft Bill is something of “a ‘leap of faith’ … because we cannot judge the legislation until we see the content of the regulations and also the funding.” 2) In the draft Bill ‘emergency’ is defined as “an event which presents a ‘serious’ threat to: human welfare; the environment; political, administrative, or economic stability; and the security of the UK or part of it". The report raised fears that this definition was too broad, stating that: “An exceptionally wide range of events or situations may give rise to a threat within the meaning of the draft Bill, including political protests, computer hacking, a campaign against banking practices, interference with the statutory functions of any person or body, an outbreak of communicable disease, or protests against genetically modified crops, among many others. We believe that the definition is drawn too widely…” The joint committee said that key terms used in the text of the Bill should be more clearly defined. 3) The joint committee highlighted the fact that “at present, the top tier local authorities (Counties, Unitaries, Metropolitan Boroughs and London Boroughs) receive annual ring-fenced funding for emergency planning of just over £19 million through the Civil Defence Grant. It has been estimated that this is only 50 percent in real terms of 10 years ago and that local authorities currently contribute an additional £17 million from their own local resources over and above the £19 million they receive from Government.” The report said that following its consultations with local authorities it felt that “the balance of probabilities is that there will indeed be a requirement for new money.” The joint committee recommends that “the Government should initiate, as a matter of urgency, a comprehensive review of the funding provision once the detail of the regulations is known.” 4) The report made the following specific comments about business continuity management: “As well as local arrangements for civil protection, the Government intends ‘to generate a resilience culture at the local level’ and to require local authorities to promote business continuity management within their areas. The Government believes that resilience will be further strengthened by extending the civil protection duty beyond emergency planning to address risks to business in the local community generally. The Cabinet Office accepts that promotion of business continuity management elements will constitute an additional cost to local authorities, which they “may seek to defray by charging local businesses who respond to the initiative.” “In commenting on the Bill the Local Government Association questioned the proposal for a mandatory requirement for local authorities to give advice and assistance “to the public”. It considered that the most likely recipients would be commercial business operators rather than members of the general public. “The Association advised that the potential for charging needed to be explored carefully and guidance given to local authorities on how to set charges in order to recover their costs. “A clear definition of what ‘business continuity management’ actually means would have assisted respondents to the consultation exercise on the draft Bill. We assume it includes advice on technology recovery, disaster recovery, risk management, crisis management, as well as advice to organisations on increasing resilience to disruption, interruption or loss. We endorse the principle that the promotion of business continuity management should be encouraged. But the consultation documents do not spell out what the Government proposes and whether other mechanisms have been examined. Neither the type and scope of the business continuity management service proposed nor the costs of setting up the service, operating it, or the level of charges have been made clear. “We recommend that the principal elements of the proposed business continuity management service be set out in detail in the explanatory notes published with the Civil Contingencies Bill. It should include a business plan for the operation of the service in a typical local authority.” FOOTNOTE
•Date:
2nd December 2003 •Region: UK •Type:
Article •Topic:
Emergency planning |
