UK Resilience
Last updated: 28 November 2008
For a list of Lead Government Departments (LGDs) for UK emergencies, including Devolved aspects, please see List of LGDs' Responsibilities
When emergencies occur in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, the response will often require the involvement of the Devolved Administrations. This section outlines the various devolution settlements and the respective civil protection arrangements.
The devolved administrations take on some of the lead government department responsibilities which are carried out by UK government departments in England, and some of the regional co-ordination responsibilities which fall to Regional Resilience Teams in England.
The balance of activity and interaction between the devolved authorities and the UK government in relation to emergencies will depend on the nature of the incident and the devolution settlement. However, the principles of emergency response are the same throughout the United Kingdom.
Responsibility for civil protection is largely a devolved matter in Scotland. Full details of civil protection arrangements in Scotland can be found on the Scottish Executive's website.
In the emergency planning and preparedness phase, Strategic Co-ordinating Groups (SCGs) in Scotland are the equivalent of the Local Resilience Forum (LRF) in England and Wales. In Scotland, however, the SCGs' role also encompasses response and recovery phases, when the SCG may meet to determine the strategy of the local response and to ensure inter-agency co-ordination. SCGs are based on police force areas.
The Scottish Executive may open the Scottish Executive Emergency Room (SEER), which will provide appropriate co-ordination and support to the Scottish response. The decision on whether to activate the SEER, and precisely what elements need to be activated, will be taken jointly by the main agencies involved and the Scottish Executive, and will depend on the nature and extent of any emergency in or affecting Scotland. In the event that UK-level arrangements are initiated, SEER will keep in touch with the Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBR), the Scotland Office and other relevant departments in Whitehall. Scottish interests will be represented in COBR.
The Scottish Emergencies Co-ordinating Committee (SECC) has a role both in preparing for emergencies and in providing advice and support for SEER at a time of emergency. In an emergency, SECC will comprise senior managers of affected Scottish Executive departments and responding agencies.
Where an emergency demands significant police involvement, the Scottish Police Information and Co-ordination Centre (S-PICC) can be activated to support SEER by collecting information from Scottish police forces, and to co-ordinate mutual aid between police forces.
If emergency regulations are made covering Scotland, the UK government will appoint a Scottish Emergency Co-ordinator.
Responsibility for civil protection is largely a non-transferred matter in Wales, remaining primarily the responsibility of UK government departments. However, the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) has functional responsibility for a number of important policy areas (e.g. health, the environment, animal health) and plays an important co-ordinating role.
The operational response to most emergencies will be managed at the local level through the Strategic Co-ordinating Group (SCG). The Wales Civil Contingencies Committee (WCCC) will be convened in exceptional circumstances in which the scale and geographical extent of an emergency requires the response and recovery effort to be co-ordinated at a pan-Wales level. The WCCC will maintain a strategic picture of the evolving situation within Wales, with a particular (but not exclusive) focus on consequence management and recovery issues. The WAG provides support for the WCCC.
When the UK Government crisis management mechanisms are brought into play following an emergency in or affecting Wales, the WAG will usually be represented by the First Minister, and the WAG's Emergency Co-ordination Centre (ECC(W)) will be activated, linking with all SCGs, the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales and COBR. The ECC(W) gathers and disseminates information in Wales on developing emergencies, and supports the WCCC and WAG Ministers.
A Wales Media Emergency Forum (WMEF) brings together the media in Wales to consider media issues arising from civil contingencies. The WAG Communications Team will act as a link between the local media and community relations lead and the UK government's News Co-ordination Centre (NCC).
If emergency regulations are made covering Wales, the UK government will appoint a Wales Emergency Co-ordinator.
Responsibility for civil protection is largely a devolved matter in Northern Ireland.
The response to emergencies in a particular area is normally managed by the emergency services. Generally, the police would have responsibility for inter-agency co-ordination at local level, involving other responders as appropriate.
The strategic-level response and co-ordination would be provided by the emergency services on land (Northern Ireland has one Police Service, one Fire and Rescue Service and one Ambulance Service) and the Northern Ireland Office, along with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) where the emergency affects coastal areas. The Northern Ireland departments will respond in accordance with the lead department arrangements, which mirror those governing Whitehall departments.
The Northern Ireland Administration is responsible for strategic co-ordination of the response to those emergencies not primarily requiring an emergency services response, and for co-ordination of the impact management and recovery. The lead department in the Northern Ireland Administration will usually request the formation of the Central Emergency Management Group (CEMG) or the Crisis Management Group (CMG), depending on the circumstances of the emergency.
The Central Emergency Planning Unit (CEPU) has the facility to activate its Northern Ireland Information Management Centre (NIIMC), which collates information from across the Northern Ireland public services and infrastructure providers.
The Northern Ireland Administration has its own Executive Information Service (EIS), which would undertake liaison with the media and issue public information for those aspects of the emergency response and recovery that fall to the Administration, working closely with the UK government News Co-ordination Centre.
In the most challenging emergencies, especially where they affect the UK as a whole, the Northern Ireland CMG would link into the Northern Ireland Office's crisis management arrangements and the strategic management arrangements of the UK government. The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) is the UK Lead Government Department for terrorist incidents affecting Northern Ireland.
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General enquiries: Cabinet Office, 22 Whitehall, London SW1A 2WH.
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