Emergency plan

This page details sections of Reigate and Banstead's Emergency Plan

Reigate & Banstead Borough Council

Emergency Plan

 Policy Document

Version 6.3 – August 2023

This plan is owned, maintained, and updated by Reigate & Banstead Borough Council. All users are asked to advise Reigate & Banstead Borough Council of any changes in circumstances that may materially affect the plan in any way. Details of changes should be sent to:

Resilience Advisor, Reigate & Banstead Borough Council – info@appliedresilience.org

Emergency Planning,
Reigate and Banstead,
Town Hall,
Castlefield Road,
Reigate,
RH2 0SH

Plan validation

Assessment/Review Type	Frequency	Next due
Administrative review	Annually	August 2024
Full review	Bi-annually	August 2024
Table top exercise	Bi-annually	August 2024

Authors: Applied Resilience on behalf of RBBC

Owner	Reigate & Banstead Borough Council
Maintenance	Applied Resilience
Approval	RBBC Managing Director and Corporate Management Group

Quick Reference Guide for Duty Managers

Notification of Incident

Clarify details of the incident:

• Major incident declared
• Exact location
• Type of incident
• Hazards present or suspected
• Access - routes that are safe to use
• Number, type, severity of casualties
• Emergency services present and those required
• Time incident started and likely duration
• Confirm requirement e.g. action or standby
• Ask where Incident Liaison Officers should report to if required
• Do not forget to log - see logging guide within the plan

Decide level of Council Response

It’s easier to stand resources down than stand them up late

The incident can be dealt with by deploying resources from one of the council Services e.g. Environmental Health, JET

Or

The emergency is significant and requires the Council’s response to be coordinated and plan activated (The need for a coordinated response of two or more council departments)

Minor incident	Major incident
Notify the appropriate Head of Service or nominee to respond	Consider staffing needs of the Borough Emergency Control Centre (BECC) – initiate call out cascade. Deploy two Incident Liaison Officers to Tactical Coordinating Group (TCG) – confirm reporting lines e.g. phone number to report back to. Inform Applied Resilience
Monitor situation to ensure it is not becoming a major incident	If BECC required notify AP Security to open the relevant building if out of hours and call a Second Duty Manager/BECC Coordinator to open the BECC
Notify other RBBC staff as appropriate for information. (It is easier to put people on standby in hours than trying to get hold of them out of hours)	If BECC required notify AP Security to open the relevant building if out of hours and call a Second Duty Manager/BECC Coordinator to open the BECC

Overview of Plan Structure

Part 1 - Policy Document

• Background Information
• Activation - Triggers and Notification
• Response 
  • Where: Borough Emergency Coordination Centre (BECC)
  • What: Duties to respond - welfare and communication
  • How: Requirements and resources available
• Stand Down and Recovery
  • Debrief 
  • Psychological First Aid
  • Recovery Group

Part one is a policy document that provides an overview of the legislative and policy framework relevant to the council’s duties to prepare for and respond to civil emergencies and business continuity incidents.

Part 2 - Operational Guidance

• Activation and Flowchart & Action - for receiver of notification
• Response and Recovery
  • Action Cards
  • ILO Action Cards
  • Partners Roles and Responsibilities
  • Evacuation
  • Logging Tips
  • Voluntary Support
  • Media Management and Communications
  • Spending
• Appendices

Part 2 contains the most relevant and operationally useful information for officers dealing with an incident, a firm understanding of background policy is crucial.

1. Introduction

1.1 Aim

The aim of the plan is to outline the response of Reigate & Banstead Borough Council (RBBC) in the event of an emergency within the borough and provide useful operational detail, procedures, and protocols to facilitate an effective response.

1.2 Objectives

The objectives of the plan are:

• To define the management response structure
• To provide guidance for the deployment and co-ordination of the borough's resources
• To define and specify activation procedures
• To define and specify roles and responsibilities of RBBC and other responding agencies

1.3 Audience and Scope

This plan is aimed at all those likely to be involved in a response to an Emergency or Major Incident impacting RBBC. This plan covers the generic aspects of RBBC response to civil emergencies. It does not cover the following: 

• Specific information and detail that is otherwise detailed in other plans, this may be;
  • An RBBC internal plan which can be obtained from the Emergency Planning network drive/Egress, or;
  • A multi-agency plan which can be obtained from ResilienceDirect. Page 12 summarises plan linkages
• Business Continuity arrangements, such as;
  • Loss or denial of access to an RBBC site (such as the Council Offices)
  • Loss of utilities
  • Loss of ICT
  • Loss of staff

N.B: In some cases, a business continuity disruption will occur at the same time as a civil emergency, for example during a wide scale loss of electricity or cyber incident. In this instance both the Emergency Plan and Business Continuity arrangements may be activated by the RBBC Duty Manager or the Incident Management Team.

Small scale out of hours incidents (such as noise complaints, minor unauthorised encampments or other small-scale issues that fall outside of the scope of the Civil Contingencies Act and associated regulations are not covered under this plan and guidance should be managed by normal day-day arrangements within the Council.

1.4 Ownership, Maintenance and Review

This plan is owned by RBBC. Applied Resilience are responsible for this plan’s creation, review, testing, exercising and maintenance. A full review of this plan will be undertaken annually or in the event of a large organisational or legislative change. It should also be reviewed as a result of lessons identified following an incident. Version control must be maintained whenever any changes are made to this plan.

1.5 Testing and Exercising

A full live exercise is to take place every two years. This will be used to test and validate the plans and inform any necessary changes.  A summary of the training, exercising and review timetable and method required is shown below in Table 2.

Training and Exercising Schedule	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4
BECC Awareness Training	X	X	X	X
ILO Training	X	X	X	X
Duty Manager Training	X	X	X	X
Emergency Plan Exercise		X		X

2. Community Risk Register and Types of Emergencies

This plan has been created to facilitate an RBBC response to an emergency in relation to risks as outlined in the Surrey Community Risk Register (CRR). The Surrey CRR is created and managed by Surrey’s Local Resilience Forum and outlines the risks within the County, based on the National Risk Assessment and National Risk Planning Assumptions. The Surrey CRR is also published to provide public information about these risks within the County, and the control measures in place to mitigate their impact. The Register has been published in response to the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. Further information can be accessed through the Surrey County Council website.

Risks have been assessed for the likelihood of the event happening (assessed by Central Government) and the potential impact that it may have within the county (assessed locally by a multi-agency Risk Assessment Working Group on behalf of the Surrey Local Resilience Forum) using a Risk Matrix.

The types of major emergencies that the Council could expect to be involved in include:

Risk Rating: Very High

• National Electricity Transmission - A total national blackout due to the loss of the GB national electricity transmission system.
• Fluvial Flooding - A significant river flood event or series of concurrent events across multiple geographic regions following a sustained period of heavy rainfall.
• Low Temperatures and Heavy Snow – Multiple regions of the UK subject to low temperatures and snow.
• Space Weather – Disruption to the electricity grid, 100,000 people with loss of power/rota disconnections for 1 month.
• Influenza Type Disease- A worldwide outbreak of influenza occurs when a novel flu virus emerges with sustained human to human transmission.
• Emerging Infectious Disease – Outbreak originating outside of the UK with cases occurring amongst returning travelers and their close contacts.

Risk Rating: High

• Major Fire – A major fire in a high-rise building resulting in significant loss of life or injury – for example, in a high rise residential building, care home or hospital.
• Wildfire - A severe wildfire spreading over an area of 1500 hectares at an urban-rural interface and lasting 7-10 days.
• Accidental Release of a Biological Substance – Inadvertent release of a biological agent caused by an unrelated work activity.
• Food Supply Contamination – A Major Contamination Incident Involving a Microbiological Pathogen in the Food Chain.
• Aviation Crash – A Crash Between Two Commercial Aircraft.
• Surface Water Flooding – In a large Metropolitan area caused by a warm unstable atmosphere.
• Drought – Drought as a result of a lack of rainfall over several years, leading to water shortages.
• Heatwave – Daily Maximum temperatures in excess of 20 degrees and minimum temperatures in excess of 15 degrees over a large region of the UK for at least 2 weeks.
• Storms – Storm force winds affecting multiple regions for at least 6 hours during a working day.
• Public Disorder – Large scale public disorder at sites ina. Single city or multiple cities, occurring concurrently over several days.

Risk Rating: Medium

• Fire or Explosion at a Fuel Distribution Site – Fire or explosion at a fuel distribution sire, or at a site storing flammable and/or toxic liquids.
• Fire or Explosion at a Gas Terminal or Storage Site – Liquified gas release is exposed to a source of ignition causing fire or explosion.
• Explosion at High Pressure Gas Pipeline – Fire or explosion at a gas pipeline following ignition of flammable has under high pressure.
• Accidental Release of Biological Pathogen - A pathogen is inadvertently released from a containment laboratory in an urban area.
• Large Toxic Gas Release - Large toxic chemical release caused by release of chlorine or a number of other chemicals.
• Accident Involving High Consequence Dangerous Goods - A road or rail tanker containing dangerous goods are involved in an accident leading to a fire/explosion.
• Radiation Exposure from Stolen Goods - Incorrect handling of a stolen radioactive source leads to accidental exposure to radioactive material.
• Collapse of a Major Government Contractor - Collapse of a major contractor integral to the provision of key public services and construction of critical UK infrastructure.
• Major Social Care Provider Failure - Adult Social Care provider due to insolvency or a provider handing back their contract to a local authority.
• Reservoir / Dam Collapse - A reservoir or dam collapse without warning resulting in almost instantaneous flooding.
• Water Infrastructure Failure or Loss of Drinking Water - Failure of water infrastructure or loss of drinking water caused by the complete and relatively sudden loss of piped water supply or the degradation of the piped supply such that it is unfit for human consumption even after boiling.
• Gas Supply Failure - A technical failure or accident in an upstream oil/gas facility, gas import pipeline terminal, or Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) import reception facility leading to disruption in UK gas supplies.
• Disruption or Loss of Telecommunication Systems - Loss of fixed and mobile telecommunications (voice and internet access) for up to 72 hours.
• Volcanic Eruption - Volcanic ash incursions for up to 25 days resulting in sporadic and temporary closures of significant parts of UK airspace.
• Earthquake (UK) – Earthquake activity that results in ground shaking with an intensity of 7 or above on the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS) that causes damage to buildings and infrastructure.
• Major Outbreak of Animal Disease – A major outbreak of an exotic notifiable disease in animals (including birds).
• Industrial Action (Firefighters) - A national fire strike in England for a continuous 8-day period with loss of life directly attributable to a weakened response by individual fire and rescue services, and reputational impact on the Government.
• Industrial action (Prison Officers) - A single unofficial strike by prison officers nationally, lasting more than 24 hours and resulting in the majority of prison officers not reporting for duty, leading to a serious shortfall in the number of personnel available to operate and maintain control of prisons.
• Industrial Action (Fuel Supply) - Actual or threatened significant disruption to the distribution of fuel by road, including as a result of industrial action by fuel tanker drivers.
• Influx of British Nationals - Influx of destitute/vulnerable British Nationals who are not normally resident in the UK and cannot be accommodated by family/friends.

Risk Rating: Low

• Radiation Release Overseas Nuclear Accident - Accident at an overseas nuclear waste storage facility with impacts that reach the south coast of the UK.
• Industrial Action (Public Transport) - Strike action by key rail or London Underground staff (e.g., signallers) resulting in the total shutdown of very significant amounts of the national rail network or about 3⁄4 of the London Underground network.

3. Civil Contingencies Act (2004)

The Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) 2004 and associated regulations and guidance is the key legislation governing emergency planning and business continuity. The chief requirement of the CCA 2004 is to maintain plans to ensure that, if an emergency occurs or is likely to occur, the Council can deliver its functions so far as necessary or desirable for the purpose of preventing the emergency, reducing, controlling, or mitigating its effect, or taking other action in connection with it.

Reigate & Banstead Borough Council is a local authority and is therefore classed as a Category 1 Responder. Category 1 Responders are those organisations at the core of emergency response (and include the emergency services, The Environment Agency and NHS bodies).

Category 1 responders are subject to the full set of civil protection duties. They are required to assess the risk of emergencies occurring and use this to inform contingency planning:

• Put in place emergency plans;
• Put in place arrangements to make information available to the public about civil protection matters and maintain arrangements to warn, inform and advise the public in the event of an emergency;
• Share information with other local responders to enhance co-ordination;
• Co-operate with other local responders to enhance co-ordination and efficiency

The CCA 2004 also covers Business Continuity, requiring local authorities to be able to continue providing an acceptable level of service of day-to-day services, even during an incident. This process is detailed in the Council’s Business Continuity Policy and Plans. The Act also requires RBBC to promote Business Continuity to local businesses and voluntary organisations.

For further details concerning the CCA 2004, see the emergency planning section of the Council’s website.

4. What is a Major Incident?

The Cabinet Office defines a major incident as:

An event or situation, with a range of serious consequences, which requires special arrangements to be implemented by one or more emergency responder agencies.

a) ‘Emergency responder agencies’ describes all Category one and two responders as defined in the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) and associated guidance;
b) A major incident is beyond the scope of business-as-usual operations, and is likely to involve serious harm, damage, disruption or risk to human life or welfare, essential services, the environment or national security;
c) A major incident may involve a single-agency response, although it is more likely to require a multi-agency response, which may be in the form of multi-agency support to a lead responder;
d) The severity of consequences associated with a major incident are likely to constrain or complicate the ability of responders to resource and manage the incident, although a major incident is unlikely to affect all responders equally;
e) The decision to declare a major incident will always be a judgment made in a specific local and operational context, and there are no precise and universal thresholds or triggers. Where LRFs and responders have explored these criteria in the local context and ahead of time, decision makers will be better informed and more confident in making that judgment.

Declaration of a Major Incident is an important indication to other responding agencies that an incident has met the defined threshold and in many plans the term acts as an important trigger point for agency actions.

Any Category 1 responder can declare a Major Incident. However, it is good practice to have agreement from senior officers.

In practice, the emergency services usually take the lead in declaring a Major Incident, however RBBC has this prerogative, which may be used for slower build incidents, such as flooding.

5. Who is Involved in Emergency Response?

Within Reigate and Banstead Borough Council, it is inevitable that most staff will be involved either directly or indirectly with responding to a major incident. This is because even those with unspecified roles, or those who continue their normal duties, will be supporting the response by maintaining the normal functions of the council, perhaps having to take up tasks from other officers whilst staff resource is at a premium (Business Continuity).

There are, however, pre-identified roles that will be at the forefront of the Council’s response. Coordinating efforts will be the Incident Management Team (IMT) who will ensure that RBBC is responding effectively in its own right, and in conjunction with other agencies. A full description of other agencies involved, and their role, can be found within this plan.

5.1 The Incident Emergency Management Team (IMT)

The IMT will coordinate RBBC’s response to a major incident. The IMT will consist of the Management Team (MT), Communications, appropriate Heads of Service, if appropriate Leader of the Council and anyone else the team deems necessary to assist. The main responsibilities are outlined within this plan. All members of IMT are expected to provide staff as required to support the response.

5.2 The Incident Liaison Officer (ILO)

The ILO will attend Tactical Briefings at Multi Agency Tactical meetings (usually near the scene of the incident) and receive up-to-date information on the situation as it unfolds. They will also take requests for Local Authority assistance/involvement to pass on to the Borough Tactical Control. ILOs pass on Borough actions and developments to the Tactical Commander (Duty Manager or BECC Coordinator).

5.3 Elected Members

Often during an incident, members of the local community turn to elected officials for support and guidance. The roles of Elected Members during an incident are as follows:

• Enhance local community liaison with RBBC
• Focus community concerns in a constructive manner
• Encourage and support recovery teams working within their community
• Visiting affected residents 
• Assisting with debrief sessions with the community

5.4 Command, Control and Coordination (C3)

The C3 structure for emergency response is the same at both an internal organisational level, and at a multi-agency level. There are three levels of command and control: Operational, Tactical and Strategic. The titles do not convey seniority of service or rank but represent a function. See Figure 2 for diagrammatic view of command and control.

5.5 Operational Command (Bronze)

This is the front-line level of response for each of the responding agencies at the scene(s) of a major incident. Each service will nominate operational commanders who will control and deploy the resources available and implement the decisions of the tactical commander.

5.6 Tactical Command (Silver)

Tactical command determines priorities in allocating resources, plans and coordinates when a task will be undertaken and obtains resources as required. Tactical commanders should not become involved with the activities at the scene but concentrate on the overall general management. They implement the strategy set out by Strategic Command.

5.7 Strategic Command (Gold)

Multi-agency Strategic will normally establish a Strategic Co-ordinating Group (SCG). This could be a virtual group or hosted at a physical location depending on the nature and scale of the incident. Other emergency services and local authorities will nominate senior officers to attend the SCG to agree upon policy and strategic direction for managing the incident. SCG meetings will be chaired by the lead agency, which has been pre-identified based on the type of incident (please see SLRF Emergency Response Protocol for more information). The Incident Management Team will act as internal RBBC Strategic.

Figure 2 depicts the C3 structure as it relates to both RBBC internally (left-hand column) and at a multi-agency level.

Borough Council	Multi-Agency
Incident Management Team (IMT)	Strategic Coordination Group (SCG)
Borough Emergency Coordination Centre (BECC)	Tactical Coordination Group (TCG)
Council Departments	Operational Teams

5.8 Lead Agency

The Lead Agency will depend on the type of incident. In many cases, Surrey Police will initially take a lead role. However, the lead agency role may then be handed over to another agency as identified in the SLRF Emergency Response Protocol.  District and Borough Councils have been pre-identified as the lead agency for earthquakes. Once the immediate dangers have subsided, in most cases the Local Authority will formally take on the lead as the Lead Agency during the recovery phase. In a cross-border incident, this will most likely be Surrey County Council, however in an incident that only affects Reigate and Banstead, RBBC will most likely be the lead agency. It is difficult to predict at what point this will happen in any given emergency, as the decision will be heavily influenced by context.

5.9 Decision-making in an Emergency

Decision-making in an emergency or major incident is different from business as usual (BAU). Structures must change so to meet the challenge, ensuring effective, and time critical decision-making is achieved. Some emergencies will require difficult choices to be made, including rapid and significant decisions to scale back or stop some services. It is therefore important that all decisions are:

• Consistent – in line with the agreed Local Resilience Forum strategy and RBBC’s own agreed strategy for responding to the incident
• Corporate – owned by RBBC as a whole and taken with a clear view of the bigger picture and any knock-on implications known and understood
• Communicated – appropriately to those affected by decisions (service users, staff and other stakeholders) and understood by all key stakeholders
• Timely – decisions must be capable of being made quickly, given any rapidly changing natures of an emergency. Making the right decision at the right time can result in lives being saved
• Recorded – decision makers are accountable for the decisions that they take. They could be required to account for them in a court of law at a later date. It is important that all such decisions are logged and recorded, including a clear rationale for why the decision was taken, the factors considered, and the alternative options considered and dismissed
• Lawful and accountable – made under appropriate authority structures and within the Council’s constitution and scheme of delegation, as well as being in full conformity with the law

6. Phases of an Incident

The response to any emergency may be divided broadly into phases, regardless of the scale:

6.1 Activation and Response

The initial response will involve the protection of life, property, and the environment, and will primarily be the responsibility of the emergency services, supported by local authority and other organisations. Reigate and Banstead’s Borough Council’s role will be focused on mobilising staff, such as Incident Liaison Officers, building control officers (provided by Tandridge DC) and staff involved in supporting the evacuation and shelter of residents (e.g. through opening or supporting Emergency Assistance Centres). In the period of consolidation, the emergency services will consolidate procedures and measures implemented in the initial response, whilst local authority and others begin to play an ever-increasing role by providing a variety of support, services and resources on request.

6.2 Recovery

Once the risk to life or property has abated, and the emergency services have begun to scale down their operations, including withdrawal from the scene, the local authority will be fully involved with organising and implementing recovery measures. Please note the recovery will start before the official handover from the response stage to the recovery phrase. Lead agency status for recovery will normally be with Surrey County Council (SCC), however in some incidents, particularly where they are isolated within the Borough, RBBC may be expected to take on this Lead Agency role. This discussion with SCC needs to happen at an early stage.

If a Major Incident has occurred and you require guidance, please go immediately to the Operational Plan.

8. Response Phase: Where?

Borough Emergency Coordination Centre (BECC)
It is highly likely that in the event of a major incident being declared, the Borough Emergency Coordination Centre (BECC) will be the focal point of RBBCs response. Below is a summary of important aspects of the BECC. Full details can be found in the RBBC BECC Plan.

8.1 BECC Location

Removed due to sensitive contents.

8.2 Decision to Open the BECC

An assessment of whether to open the BECC will be influenced by:

• The apparent long-term or serious implications for RBBC and/or the community;
• Pre-planned or anticipated incidents/events;
• The need for a coordinated response of two or more Council departments;
• A protracted incident likely to last for more than 24 hours;
• Out of hours when it is difficult to coordinate activities of responding staff;
• Major disruption to RBBC;
• The need to support adjoining boroughs/districts faced with an emergency;
• The need for the BECC to be virtual or physical

A BECC is scalable: it could be a very small group working together or it could be a large coordination centre. There is also the opportunity to hold a virtual BECC and details can be found in the BECC plan.

10. Welfare

10.1 Evacuation

As a result of the impact of a Major Incident, the emergency services may advise the public to evacuate their homes/workplaces/schools or to stay indoors and take shelter. The emergency services will, normally, request evacuation and define the area to be evacuated. The police or Surrey Fire and Rescue Services (SFRS) will normally request the evacuation of an area in consultation with other responding agencies. RBBC may be called upon to assist the police by providing transport, shelter and accommodation. Should it be required RBBC, the police and SCC will agree on the best location for an Emergency Assistance Centre (Police or Fire for an Evacuation point and RBBC for a Rest Centre). This will depend on the circumstances. Despite the request for evacuation, there may not be the need to establish a Rest Centre. An assessment by a Housing Officer may be appropriate. Members of the public may be able to self-evacuate or for a small group it may be more appropriate to arrange Bed and Breakfast/Hotel accommodation.

10.2 Support in-situ

It may be determined that an evacuation is not necessary or possible and instead the response will focus on providing support to people where they are. This is a common occurrence for severe weather, such as snow or heatwave (although some evacuations of residents may still take place).

SCC Emergency Management Team may determine that a Welfare teleconference, involving all relevant agencies (including the Districts and Boroughs) to discuss the need for, and most appropriate way of providing, support for residents including those who are vulnerable. 

10.3 Emergency Assistance Centres (EACs)

Providing shelter is one of the main responsibilities of the Borough Council during a Major Incident. Under the Local Government Act 2000, Local Authorities have a responsibility to ensure the economic, social and environmental well-being of the community that they serve. The 1989 Local Government Housing Act and the 1996 Housing Act place statutory duties on Local Authorities to provide temporary accommodation for residents rendered homeless because of an emergency. Under Surrey Local Resilience Forum (SLRF) Emergency Assistance Guidance, there are four types of assistance centres. Below is a summary of those centres - full details can be found in the RBBC EAC Plan or the SLRF Emergency Assistance Centre Plan. Within the plan both RBBC and SCC EMT have responsibilities to arrange / provide transport from the likes of an evacuation point to another EAC.

10.4 Rest Centres (Borough Lead)

The most commonly used EAC is the Rest Centre. It is a building designated or taken over by the Local Authority for the temporary accommodation of evacuees and homeless survivors, with the potential for overnight facilities.

10.5 Survivor Reception Centre (Police Lead)

Set up in the immediate aftermath of an emergency where survivors not requiring acute hospital treatment can be taken for short-term shelter, first aid, interviews, and documentation.

10.6 Friends and Family Reception Centre (Police Lead)

A secure area set aside in the immediate aftermath of a disaster for use and interviewing of family and friends arriving at the scene (or location associated with an incident, such as at an airport or port).

10.7 Community Assistance Centre (CommAC)(Borough Lead) / Humanitarian Assistance Centre (HAC)(County Council Lead)

Both are one-stop-shops for survivors, families, friends, and all those impacted by a disaster, through which they can access support, care, and advice. The distinction between the two is the scale at which they operate. CommACs are set up for very localised incidents. Areas of Surrey badly affected by Flooding in 2013/2014 opened CommACs to provide support to the local community. HACs are much larger and may be necessary when there is a wider area (or areas) impacted by a catastrophic event. A HAC was opened in London in 2005 after the July 7 terrorist attacks.

10.8 Homelessness

In an Incident, RBBC has a duty to respond to emergency homelessness.

1.  For a small number of people/families affected alternative accommodation can be made via our out of hours provider (number in Contacts Directory) or by the  Travelodge booking account/ hotel booking.
2.  For large scale homelessness (e.g. police cordon/evacuation) a rest centre will be set up while either better accommodation can be found or residents can return to their homes.

Private housing often has insurance which will allow residents to claim alternative hotel accommodation. In addition, landlords also have a responsibility to their tenants. One of the biggest housing providers in the borough is Raven Housing Trust.

11. Communication

11.1 Members

The Incident Management Team is responsible for ensuring appropriate communication about an incident with Members. The IMT should seek to minimise the burden on Tactical and Operational levels and be aware that members (like anyone) can help or hinder the emergency response and so clarity, communication and leadership is critical. A Member Liaison Officer maybe appointed to support communication with members.

11.2 Public

Communications with the public can take the form of:

• Media and press announcements (jointly with other organisations;
• Direct email (for those who have signed up to receive from us);
• Switchboard messages;
• Council website messages;
• Appropriate social media channels;
• Leaflets / posters in targeted locations (if time allows)

Timely, accurate, and effective communication with the public is essential for the emergency response. As such a communications representative should be present at all IMT meetings and the BECC should have representation, or very clear links with the Communications and Customer Service teams.

It is also critical that communication messages can be signed off quickly. The strategic lead (which could be any one of the Management Team) should make themselves available to sign off messages quickly. Sign off does not need to wait for the next IMT meeting or does it need the whole of IMT to sign them off.

11.3 Media

Any major incident has the potential to generate a huge amount of media interest. It is likely that members of the media will be among the first to arrive at the scene or quickly access photographs and images from the public. As such, effective media management is considered a key component of any incident response plan.  The Surrey Police Communications Department will coordinate any media response to an incident and should maintain close liaison with the District and Borough Communications Officers to ensure a coordinated and consistent release of information. The incident may require the support of a RBBC Communications Officer. In this case Surrey Communications group may be activated. The Borough Communications Officer should be familiar with this as detailed in the Surrey Major Incident Communication Plan. The Reigate and Banstead Media Plan sets out the Council’s role in media issues in an emergency. The role of the Communications team and a media management aide memoir can be found within the plan.

11.4 Staff

Messages and decisions about emergency events the council is responding to will be communicated via the Knowledge and Line Managers. Decisions about the messages that should be communicated will be agreed by the Incident Management Team. The following teams will liaise to ensure consistent messages are disseminated via communication channels: Communications, Customer Contact. An emergency will affect lots of services so remember horizontal communication (which can be coordinated by the BECC or Duty manager) to key services is just as important to vertical coordination.

11.5 Alternative Emergency Communication Systems

Reigate and Banstead Borough Council has a duty under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) to ensure that there is a robust and resilient telecommunications system in place, in the event of traditional methods failing. There are several ways that RBBC can meet this duty. Full details can be found in the RBBC Loss of Telecommunications plan.

11.6 Radio Networks

Radio Amateurs Emergency Network (RAYNET) is a nationwide voluntary group of licensed radio operators who can provide emergency radio communications to the emergency services, local authorities and government departments. The assistance of RAYNET should be sought through Surrey Police or SCC EMT.

11.7 Mobile Telephone Privileged Access Scheme MTPAS

Mobile Telephone Privileged Access Scheme (MTPAS) is a scheme that provides call preference for key emergency management organisations if the public network access is restricted. All ILOs and key operational staff from the Depot that have work phones have MTPAS SIM cards; this means their phones will be operational for phone calls should the MTPAS network be invoked locally during an emergency response.

12. Media Management

12.1 Coordination with other organisations

Generally, for a major incident Surrey Police will coordinate the activities of the emergency services and other agencies including the communication part of the response. 

When appropriate, depending on the nature of the incident, the Communications Officer should run statements past Surrey Police Communications Team, the Fire or Ambulance service Communications Teams and Surrey County Council or the other local authority Communications Teams if it is a cross-border incident. This will ensure that all statements correlate

12.2 Spokesperson

The incident will stimulate public concern and media interest, a spokesperson should be appointed for as long as the incident lasts and they should make themselves available on their mobile phone to the Communications Officer. This would usually be the Managing Director or Leader of the Council.

12.3 Media Centre

The opening of a media centre must be agreed by the Strategic Co-ordinating Group (SCG). If a media centre is required, then the lead local authority will select and obtain a suitable building. The secretariat for the Warning & Informing Group holds a list of potential sites that could be used as media centres.  There are two locations pre-identified as possible media centres in the borough:

• Removed due to sensitive contents

12.4 Media Monitoring

It is necessary to monitor media output to be aware of contentious issues or inaccurate statements. Monitoring needs to be a continuous process. Any perceived problems with the information that is being broadcast should be identified and fed back to the Strategic Co-ordinating Group (SCG) via the Tactical Media Manager.  

Recordings of broadcasts and press cuttings may provide useful feedback material when the response to the incident is analysed.

12.5 Statements

The Communications Officer should prepare a holding statement, to be approved by a Director /strategic lead.  The time that the statement is made should be logged. A ‘holding statement’ should be provided to the public and press with basic information and notification, whilst greater detail is prepared for a full press release.

If more detailed information comes through quickly, then this should be included in the first holding statement.  However, the holding statement should be issued as quickly as possible and followed up with a more detailed statement as soon as possible.

The Communications Officer will then prepare a full statement for the media giving details of the incident. The statement should be signed off by the Strategic Lead as well as any spokesperson quoted in the statement.

12.6 Full Statements

A full statement should outline the points below (link with Police Communications Team or Communications Team of any other lead organisation appointed):

• Summary of the event - time, place, date of incident etc.
• Extent of injury if known - do not speculate.  If unsure use the term - leg, foot, arm injury.  State left or right if known.  If you have an accurate medical report from hospital, use their terminology.  Avoid the use of words that are sensational, e.g. severed, amputated
• Brief description of incident, using any positive points where possible
• Quote from a senior officer/member if they are available
• Quote and/or contact details for victims or those affected by the incident. Ensure they are happy to speak to the press
• Photograph, if appropriate

12.7 Informing Staff and Members

The statement should be placed on the Knowledge (Staff Intranet), the Council’s website and an email with the link should be sent to the Customer Contact Managers, MT (to cascade) and Elected Members. For teams that do not regularly use the network printed version will also be made available for critical communications.

12.8 Local Media Enquiries

Once all enquirers have been satisfied with a press statement, dependent on the seriousness of the incident, the Communications Officers should approach the local media, which have not enquired with the information.

12.9 Press Conference/Briefings

It is the responsibility of Surrey Police Media Office Manager/Scene Press Officer to organise and manage briefings. The first press briefing will take place shortly after the incident probably at or near the scene of the incident (a Media Liaison Point). Thereafter briefings should take place at regular intervals, as agreed with Strategic/Tactical Communication lead.  At least 30 minutes’ notice should be given before briefings, if possible.  

All information released at press conferences must be agreed by the Strategic Communications Manager/Tactical Media Manager (and appointed operational officer) and only authorised personnel will make statements to the media. Appropriate senior officers from the emergency services and local authorities will be expected to speak to the media at informal briefings as well as formal press conferences throughout the incident. Spokespeople must be trained to an appropriate level. It is the responsibility of each organisations media office to brief their spokespeople.  Prior to any press briefings it is advised that the Media Officer (on scene) gathers all the spokespeople and their respective press officer together and agrees who is going to talk about what, identify any contentious issues and discuss how these can be dealt with.

12.10 Key Messages and Q&A Sheet

It is essential that prior to a press briefing/conference with TV crews, the Communications lead has prepared key messages and a question-and-answer sheet (Q&A). This will help prepare the spokesperson for any difficult questions.

12.11 Dealing with Complaints

The BECC and IMT should ensure that these are dealt with swiftly to avoid extra media attention. It is important that the Communication and Customer Contact teams keep the BECC up to date with the level and nature of complaints, reported issues and difficulties.

12.12 Transfer of Media Operations

It is expected that in the recovery phase of most major incidents Surrey County Council would take over the co-ordination of communications and engagement from Surrey Police. If there are smaller incidents where RBBC take responsibility.

12.13 Mutual Aid

The Surrey Communications Group have an informal arrangement in place to provide mutual support in emergencies.