A new National Flood Emergency Framework announced

Category Business Continuity Management Briefing BCM - BCM & Risk Management - news - General

Secretary of State proposes Flooding Emergency Plan

In his statement to Parliament following the publication of the Pitt Review: Lessons learned from the 2007 floods, the Secretary of State said that the Government would produce an outline of a National Flood Emergency Framework, National Flood Emergency Framework by the end of July 2008. That outline was published on 30 July 2008.

The outline is a first step towards meeting the Government's commitment to produce a draft Framework for consultation by the end of 2008, as part of a major programme to improve preparedness for severe flooding.

Lead Department Plan for Flooding and Flood Emergencies

There are a range of partners involved in planning for, and dealing with, flooding events at the national, regional and local levels. The responsibilities of Defra and others are set out in our Lead Department Plan. The Plan takes account of lessons identified following the Summer 2007 floods, the November East Coast Tidal Surge and the floods earlier this year, as well as issues raised in the recently published Pitt report.

Regionally, the lead planning role falls to the government offices for the regions working with local authorities, the Environment Agency and emergency services (police, fire, ambulance, coastguard). The police will lead the response during an actual emergency. The Environment Agency’s main operational role is to forecast flooding, issue flood warnings and operate its own flood defence infrastructure (for example barriers and sluices) to mitigate the impacts.

The Environment Agency ensures local professional partners are well briefed on the likelihood and implications of flooding. There are also provisions for government coordination when necessary through the arrangements operated by the Cabinet Office Civil Contingencies Secretariat.

The Government has set up Regional Resilience Teams in each of the English regions to enhance the co-ordination of planning for wide impact events such as major flooding and to improve lines of communication between central Government and local responders during the response to an incident.

The Continuity Forum and the Cabinet Office will be holding a special industry summit on the 26th Septmber addressing Special risks such as Flooding and Pandemic Influenza

For more information on the Summit please contact Sara McKenna on 020 8993 1599 or by mail at info@continuityforum.org.

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