Community risk register
Preparing for emergencies in Warwickshire - a guide
The Warwickshire Resilience Forum (WRF) website has all the information to help you prepare for a major emergency which might affect Warwickshire. The website sets out:
- Which major emergencies are likely to occur in Warwickshire.
- How you can prepare yourself to deal with them.
- How you can respond to emergencies.
- What the emergency services and other WRF partners do to reduce the likelihood of these emergencies occurring, and how partners will respond if they do occur.
- Where you can find out more information about each risk.
- Advice on how to make an emergency 'grab bag', and what to include in it.
What is risk assessment and why is it important?
Risk assessment is the first step in the emergency planning process. It aims to identify those risks which could result in a major emergency in Warwickshire. Each risk is then quantified on its likelihood of occurring and its potential impacts.
Risk assessment enables us to ensure our plans are sound and proportionate to the risks in Warwickshire, and enables us to take preventative action where appropriate. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 places a statutory obligation on all Category 1 responders to carry out risk assessments and maintain a 'Community Risk Register'. WRF has worked with a wide range of its stakeholders and partner organisations in this process.
Developing the Community Risk Register
The generation of the Community Risk Register was subject to a six-stage process as recommended in the document 'Emergency preparedness' (guidance document produced by central Government to support Part 1 of the Civil Contingencies Act). This process consists of the following key steps:
- Contextualisation (defining how the process will be undertaken)
- Hazard review and allocation for assessment
- Risk analysis
- Risk evaluation
- Risk treatment
- Monitoring and review.
The Government has published a National Risk Register (NRR) which sets out its assessment of the likelihood and potential impact of a range of risks that may directly affect the UK on a national scale. The NRR is designed to increase awareness of the kinds of risks the UK faces, and to encourage individuals and organisations to think about their own preparedness. The register also includes details of what the Government and emergency services are doing to prepare for emergencies.
Warwickshire Resilience Forum risk profile
Warwickshire is a landlocked county covering 1,975km² and bordering seven other counties. According to mid-2003 estimates, the county had a population of 519,800 and a diverse local economy including manufacturing, tourism, retail and distribution, social care and professional services. The county also has an extensive transport infrastructure serving the heart of the country, featuring five major motorways, is a key link in much of the country's rail network and has recently seen increased air traffic from Birmingham and Coventry airports.
Warwickshire Resilience Forum risk scenarios
The hazard review process considered a range of natural and man-made scenarios, and assessed these for the likelihood of them occurring and their potential impact. The inclusion of these hazards or potential scenarios do not, however, mean WRF believes the risks will materialise, or that they would be of the suggested scale. WRF has based its risk assessment work on these reasonably-assumed worst-case scenarios. All the scenarios would result from an accident, rather than deliberate or malicious action, for example terrorism. Despite this, malicious scenarios were also given further consideration. Due to the sensitivity of the information supporting these risk assessments, specific details will not be available via the WRF website, however the forum wants to highlight that both inadvertent and malicious incidents were considered as part of the risk assessment process.
Review
This is an ongoing process and the timescales involved in producing the final Community Risk Register cannot be underestimated. The work to date is provided here to illustrate the assessment work completed so far. Risk assessment is a continuous process and is subject to regular review as local and national circumstances dictate. WRF intends to undertake its own formal review of its risk assessment work every four years.