Disaster Action is a British charity founded in 1991 by survivors and bereaved relatives of UK and overseas disasters. In the late 1980s, there were a number of serious incidents in which many people died, such as the sinking of the

MV Jupiter (1961) MV ''Jupiter'' was a Greek-registered cruise ship that sank on 21 October 1988, within 40 minutes of leaving the Greek port of Piraeus. On board were 391 British schoolchildren and 84 adults on a study cruise and 110 crew. The disaster claimed the ...

, Hillsborough, the

Herald of Free Enterprise MS ''Herald of Free Enterprise'' was a roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ferry which capsized moments after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on the night of 6 March 1987, killing 193 passengers and crew. The eight-deck car and passenger ferry was ow ...

Lockerbie Lockerbie (, gd, Locarbaidh) is a small town in Dumfries and Galloway, south-western Scotland. It is about from Glasgow, and from the border with England. The United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census recorded its population as 4,009. The town ...

, the

Marchioness A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman wi ...

Piper Alpha Piper Alpha was an oil platform located in the North Sea approximately north-east of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was operated by Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia) Limited (OPCAL) and began production in 1976, initially as an oil-only platform but la ...

and

UTA Flight 772 UTA Flight 772 was a scheduled international passenger flight of the French airline Union de Transports Aériens (UTA) operating from Brazzaville in the People's Republic of the Congo, via N'Djamena in Chad, to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris ...

. Maurice de Rohan from the Herald Families Association realised that the issues the Herald families were experiencing would almost certainly be encountered by others in similar disasters. He, along with like minded individuals, founded the charity. It won a

Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unite ...

charity of the year award in 2004 for excellence in its field.

Development

The organisation evolved and developed through the years with one significant development being the introduction of legislation to provide for remedies against

Corporate manslaughter Corporate manslaughter is a crime in several jurisdictions, including England and Wales and Hong Kong. It enables a corporation to be punished and censured for culpable conduct that leads to a person's death. This extends beyond any compensation t ...

, which culminated with a new law coming into force on 1 April 2008. The charity has also generated income through charging fees for presentations by members on training courses for corporate bodies based on members' experience.

Funding and status

The

Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) is a philanthropic grant making trust that supports work undertaken in the UK and Ireland, and previously South Africa. It is one of three original trusts set up by Joseph Rowntree in 1904. The Trust ...

funded much of the organisation's work on corporate responsibility as well as offering core funding for five years from 2003. The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and then the Golden Bottle/Bulldog trusts also gave grants for core funding. In 2015 the decision was taken to no longer offer a proactive response to major emergencies or offer presentations.

References

External links

*{{official website, http://www.disasteraction.org.uk Social welfare charities based in the United Kingdom