Preparing Scotland is underpinned by the principal legislation involved, the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 ("the Act") and the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (Contingency Planning) (Scotland) Regulations 2005/Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (Contingency Planning) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2013 ("the Regulations").
The Contingency Planning (Scotland) Regulations, 2005 require Category 1 responders to consider whether it would be helpful for a number of them to work together and maintain a multi-agency functional plan.
The Scottish Government believes it would be beneficial for responders to maintain multi-agency arrangements (generic plans) to care for all people affected by emergencies, including those directly or indirectly involved, the emergency responders seeking to support them, and their communities.
Responders
The Act and the Regulations outline the key organisations responsible for ensuring the effective management of emergencies in Scotland.
Duties
The said legislation places a number of legal duties upon Category 1 responders. These are, in brief;
- Duty to assess risk
- Duty to maintain emergency plans
- Duty to maintain business continuity plans
- Duty to promote business continuity2
- Duty to communicate with the public
- Duty to share information
- Duty to co-operate.
For Category 2 responders the basic legislative principle is that they must co-operate with Category 1 responders in connection with the performance of their duties, including the proper sharing of information.
Structures
The Regulations3 outline the structure within which cooperation to meet these legal duties should be undertaken, namely the Regional Resilience Partnerships (RRP).
There are three RRPs, the North of Scotland, East of Scotland and West of Scotland.
To support working arrangements and maintain effective local liaison, the RRP areas have been sub-divided into 13 Local Resilience Partnerships (LRPs), taking account of existing local authority and, where applicable, health board boundaries.
The Resilience Partnership framework is integrated with the Scottish Government emergency arrangements which in turn are integrated with UK Government. The Scottish Government may establish its Resilience Room (SGoRR), as appropriate, which is linked with the activities taking place within the Cabinet Office's Briefing Rooms (COBR). The Scottish Government's corporate arrangements involve all of its directorates and a Cabinet Sub-Committee CSC (SGoRR), as necessary, depending on the nature of the emergency.
The management framework, therefore, describes the communications links from local to UK Government level.
2 This duty applies to Local Authorities only
3 The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (Contingency Planning) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2013; Reg: 2(2)(a)