Major Incidents

An 'emergency' is defined in Part 1 of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 as:

“An event or situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare in a place in the UK, the environment of a place in the UK, or war or terrorism which threatens serious damage to the security of the UK.”

The definition of emergency is concerned with consequence, rather than with cause or source. Therefore, an emergency outside or inside the UK is covered by definition provided it has consequences inside the UK.

A major incident is any incident that requires the implementation of special arrangements by one or more of the emergency services, the NHS or the appropriate Local Authority for:

The rescue and transportation of a large number of casualties;
The involvement either directly or indirectly of large numbers of people;
The handling of a large number of enquiries likely to be generated from both the public and the news media usually to the police;
Any incident that requires the large scale combined resources of the emergency services;
The mobilisation and organisation of the emergency services and the supporting services to cater for the threat of death, serious injury or homelessness to a large number of people.

Planning
Training
Exercising
Response to major incidents
- Declaration
- Stages
- Roles and responsibilities of emergency services
- Scene management
- Command and control

Lancashire Resilience Forum

Police
Fire and Rescue Service
Ambulance
HM Coastguard
Local Authorities – e.g. Social Services, Education, Environmental Health, Analysts
Health Protection Agency
Primary Care Trusts
Hospitals
Environment Agency
Industry – Gas, Electricity, Railways, Water
Voluntary organisations – e.g. BRCS – WRVS - SAMARITANS
Media

Objectives of Combined Response:

to save life
to prevent escalation of the disaster
to relieve suffering
to safeguard the environment
to protect property
to facilitate criminal investigation and judicial, public, technical, or other requirements
to continue to maintain normal services at an appropriate level
to inform the public
to promote self help and recovery
to restore normality as soon as possible
to evaluate the response and identify lessons to be learned

Lancashire Resilience Forum (LRF) Guidelines for De-Briefing Major Incidents

(as Defined in the ACPO Emergency Procedures Manual)

Subject to the constraints and obligations of statutory intervention associated with any inquiry or investigation, the following guidelines to de-briefing will apply:

The LRF secretary will examine the daily Chief Officer Incident log in order to identify incidents which may require further investigation for de-briefing.

The LRF secretary will also liaise with the relevant police division in order to ascertain their intentions with regard to any proposed de-briefing.

The LRF secretary will co-ordinate the dissemination of this information to members of LRF and liaise with the LRF Chairperson, as to who would seem to be the lead organisation.

The LRF Chairperson will then write to that organisation formally.

If the lead organisation is the police, the LRF Chairperson will identify an appropriate Chairperson for the de-brief.

If another organisation leads, the Chairperson will be nominated by that organisation.

There will be a three-week time limit for in-house de-briefing followed by a further three-week period to hold the multi-agency de-brief.

All administration and accommodation/catering will be provided by the lead organisation.

A de-brief report will be produced by the lead organisation and circulated within two weeks of the multi-agency de-brief.

This report will be forwarded to the Chairperson of the LRF Executive, who may refer issues to Regional or National level.

The lead organisation will be responsible for distribution of the report.

Where recommendations are made, as they fall within the remit of the LRF group, the progress of the implementation of those recommendations will be monitored by LRF.

27th March 2007