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Intelligent technology to meet CCA requirements
Intelligent use of technology is the key to the successful implementation of the Civil Contingencies Act, says Howard Papworth SG&I executive director, Western Europe, Intergraph.
The Civil Contingencies Act, and accompanying non-legislative measures, will for civil protection in the United Kingdom capable of meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century. Fine words: but translating this Government mission statement into reality will not be so easy. One major stumbling block is the local authority claim that the Civil Contingencies Act [CCA] is not included amongst their key performance indicators – the metrics that have been established to measure their success against the targets set by Government. There is a lack of incentive, and (it seems) a lack of additional resource at local government level. It is important to distinguish between the USA’s homeland security measures and the UK’s Civil Contingencies Act – which, although it does cover security issues including terrorism, also provides for serious damage to human welfare in the event of (for example) a recurrence of foot and mouth disease, a bird flu epidemic or a fuel blockade. So for the UK the CCA not only tasks local government, emergency services and other local responders specified by the Act to work within a unified framework in response to national security threats: it also gives them a further responsibility to plan for and deal with more ‘mundane’ events. In technology terms there are three areas to address for civil contingency: intelligent risk analysis and post event analysis; the ability to unify data (fusing diverse sources into one, to a level required for efficient response), and robust, efficient, ‘on the day’ operational delivery using the right information, in the right place, at the right time. Ad hoc communication and co-ordination (with the enabling IT as an afterthought) is no longer an option. Importantly, the CCA makes it a requirement to analyse – and test - whether a given service could continue to run as normal in the event of response to a major incident. In this field there is much ‘what if’ preparation work to be done, and some smart risk analysis technology now exists that will help responders to be more prepared in advance by identifying any risks that they can not respond to with their normal level of service being maintained. In our view any solution for UK civil contingency should be Internet-centric, but with a two-speed structure that will accommodate the sharing of background and time-critical information, when the communications infrastructure is damaged. There is a proven precedent for this – widespread military practice. The Act makes co-ordination and communication more vital than ever, as it involves a much wider range of respondents – from local authorities and health services to utilities and transportation organisations. Here data protection has always been a sensitive issue: police access to personal medical information, for example, or in the ‘wider world’ of civil contingency, one utility company’s sharing of its commercially valuable customer data with another. Fortunately, the software and services now exist that enable multiple parties to share information from diverse data sources, as fully as required for operational response while also protecting personally or commercially sensitive information. When combined with state-of-the-art command and control technology, ‘full information, fully shared’ provides the best possible environment for effective civil contingency response. The Civil Contingencies Act The Civil Contingencies Act, and accompanying non-legislative measures, will deliver single framework for civil protection in the United Kingdom capable of meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century. The Act is separated into two substantive parts: local arrangements for civil protection (Part 1) and emergency powers (Part 2). Part 1 of the Act and supporting Regulations and statutory guidance Emergency Preparedness establish a clear set of roles and responsibilities for those involved in emergency preparation and response at the local level. The Act divides local responders into two categories, imposing a different set of duties on each. Those in Category 1 are those organisations at the core of the response to most emergencies (e.g. emergency services, local authorities, NHS bodies). Category 1 responders are subject to the full set of civil protection duties. They will be required to: * Assess the risk of emergencies occurring and use this to inform contingency planning * Put in place emergency plans * Put in place Business Continuity Management arrangements *Put in place arrangements to make information available to the public about civil protection matters and maintain arrangements to warn, inform and advise the public in the event of an emergency * Share information with other local responders to enhance co-ordination * Co-operate with other local responders to enhance co-ordination and efficiency * Provide advice and assistance to businesses and voluntary organisations about business continuity management (Local Authorities only). Category 2 organisations (e.g. Health and Safety Executive, transport and utility companies). These "co-operating bodies" are less likely to be involved in the heart of planning work but will be heavily involved in incidents that affect their sector. Category 2 responders have a lesser set of duties - co-operating and sharing relevant information with other Category 1 and 2 responders. Category 1 and 2 organisations will come together to form Local Resilience Forums (based on police areas) which will help co-ordination and co-operation between responders at the local level. Part 2 of The Act updates the 1920 Emergency Powers Act to reflect the developments in the intervening years and the current and future risk profile. It allows for the making of temporary special legislation (emergency regulations) to help deal with the most serious of emergencies. The use of emergency powers is a last resort option and planning arrangements at the local level should not assume that emergency powers will be made available. Their use is subject to a robust set of safeguards - they can only be deployed in exceptional circumstances. Source: Cabinet Office http://www.ukresilience.info/ccact/
