Emergency planning

Emergency planning

We have responsibilities under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (CCA) to ensure that the city is prepared and able to respond to any emergency within the area. Emergency planning is a part of resilience, which includes writing emergency plans and responding to incidents.

Emergency plans provide an efficient response to a major incident. The main plan is the Emergency Management Plan which is designed to provide a framework on which the council, as a Category One responder under the CCA, can respond to a range of emergencies which will vary in scale and nature.

The Community Risk Register outlines risks that Peterborough and Cambridgeshire face. It is produced by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Local Resilience Forum (CPLRF) and updated regularly. Visit the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Prepared website for more information on the Community Risk Register.

Business continuity

The Civil Contingencies Act requires Category One responders (Peterborough City Council) to maintain plans to ensure that they can continue to exercise their functions in the event of an emergency so far as is reasonably practicable. The duty relates to all functions, not just their emergency response functions.

It is very beneficial for all businesses to have in place some arrangements for responding to an internal incident and recovering their business functions. 

Further information about the business continuity process can be found in the Business Continuity: Information and Advice leaflet.

Further information about business continuity

• Business Continuity Institute 
• Gov.uk Business Continuity planning
• HM Government Business Continuity toolkit
• Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure

Community resilience

Emergencies are always going to happen wherever and whenever. Being prepared is the best way to minimise the risk of the emergency having a negative impact on your community. In some emergencies the local emergency responders have to prioritise who needs their help first. This means that if your life isn’t in immediate danger you may have to wait for their assistance. We’ve teamed up with the other agencies to prepare some advice for local residents and businesses about how to get prepared. The information is hosted on Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service’s website.

A Community Emergency Plan can be completed by any community group who feels their community needs to be more prepared. There might already be informal procedures in place but this plan allows all ideas to be brought together in one document where everyone can contribute and are aware of these procedures.

For individuals who feel that their family needs to be more prepared there is also a Household Emergency Plan. This contains an Action Plan where you can outline the actions you would take in different emergency situations.