11. Specialist advisers to Resilience Partnerships

  1. In some specific types of emergency, individual or groups of specialist advisers, for example, the Government Technical Adviser in civil nuclear emergencies, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in counter terrorism (CT) and CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) emergencies, or other government agency advisers can support the work of the RP. The advice from these specialist advisers must be fed to the RP through the STAC to ensure coordination of the advice.

9. Administration and support of STAC

  1. There will be a need for adequate administrative support staff to enable the STAC to operate effectively. The organisation chairing the STAC will be responsible for ensuring that there are adequate administrative arrangements in place to support the operation of the STAC in the initial establishment of the STAC, but contingent arrangement will be required to be put in place for an ongoing response.

7. Flexibility in approach

  1. While this document provides broad guidance, the detail must be left to the discretion of those involved in managing the response in RPs and the Scottish Government. Flexibility will be critical in making these arrangements work as there is a wide range of possible scenarios that could arise, and the approach taken will depend on assessment of the situation at the time. Rapid and close liaison between key personnel in local and national organisations and in the Scottish Government will be essential in identifying and activating the most appropriate mechanism.

6. Prolonged emergencies

  1. Organisations represented on or providing information or administrative and/or managerial support to the STAC should make sure that they have appropriate plans in place in advance to ensure continued support to the STAC at a suitable staff level over a prolonged period if required. Mutual aid or surge arrangements should be made where insufficient staff are available locally to provide a two or three shift system.

Annex C: Glossary and Acronyms

Glossary and Acronyms

  • Capability – The expertise, ability and experience required to deal with a range of consequences, the demonstrable ability to respond to and recover from a particular threat or hazard.
  • Capability Gap – The gap between the current ability to provide a response and the actual response assessed to be required for a given threat or hazard. Plans should be made to reduce or eliminate this gap, if the risk justifies it.
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