Civil Contingencies Act 2004

What is the Civil Contingency Act 2004?

The legislation and accompanying non-statutory measures give us a single framework for civil protection in the UK. This improves the UK's ability to deal with the consequences of major disruptive incidents by improving the planning process at a local level, building better contacts between agencies and improving the link between local areas and central government.

The Act is separated into two substantive parts: local arrangements for civil protection (Part 1) and emergency powers (Part 2).

What is an emergency?

The CCA 2004 it defines an emergency as:

an event or situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare;
an event or situation which threatens serious damage to the environment; or
war, or terrorism, which threatens serious damage to security.

What is a major incident?

A major incident is defined as an:

"Event or situation requiring a response under one or more of the emergency services' major incident plans."

Additional information

Part 1

The Purpose of Part 1 is to establish a new statutory framework for civil protection at a local level. The act also splits local responders into two categories, category 1 responders and category 2 responders.

The CCA enhances existing arrangements by:

Establishing a clear set of roles and responsibilities for local responders.
Creating structure and consistency to local civil protection activity.
Establishing a basis for performance management at a local level.

Part 1 - Statutory Duties

Assess Risk	The LRF assesses risk through risk registers and community risk registers
Put in Place Emergency Plans	The LRF works with its partners to produce a range of multiagency emergency plans.
Business Continuity	The LRF has put in Business Continuity arrangements and encourages partners to produce their own Business Continuity arrangements.
Business Continuity Promotion (Local Authority only)	This is the responsibility of the Local Authority to ensure they engage with businesses' and SME's.
Information Sharing	The LRF has put in processes to allow for the sharing of information to the partners and the public
Co-operation	The LRF cooperates with its partners to enhance co-ordination and efficiency of emergency preparedness and response.
Warning and Informing	The LRF has put in arrangement to warn the public about civil protection issues through media, our twitter and website.

Part 2

This details the emergency powers that be enacted for the most serious emergencies, for example, a power outage that would last over 4 days. It has never been enacted and is only used as a last resort.

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