The council's role in emergencies

Civil Contingencies Act 2004

Under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 Ealing Council is ‘Category 1’ responder and has the following statutory duties:

  • assess the risk of emergencies that could occur
  • put in place emergency plans to respond to these emergencies
  • put in place plans to keep the council’s key services running during an emergency, which is known as business continuity plans
  • work together with local responders and share information to better prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies
  • warn, inform, and advise the public in advance, during and after emergencies have happened
  • give advice to local businesses and voluntary services on how they can protect their business from disruption, which is known as business continuity management

Support we provide

As a council we have arrangements in place to provide support to our residents and responding partners, such as:

  • maintaining a 24/7 on call rota of trained staff to respond to emergencies
  • use our resources to prevent emergencies or minimise their impact when they do occur
  • keep our residents, businesses and communities informed when emergencies occur, so that residents can be kept informed of what has happened and what support is available
  • deploy services to support affected residents, businesses, and the emergency services (highways, dangerous structure engineers, housing repairs, temporary accommodation, etc) in lessening the impacts of an emergency
  • lead the recovery process following a major emergency, helping communities and businesses to rehabilitate and rebuild after the response has ended