The Civil Contingencies Committee is a
British cabinet committee chaired by the
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...
. It is intended to deal with major crises such as
terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
or
natural disaster
A natural disaster is "the negative impact following an actual occurrence of natural hazard in the event that it significantly harms a community". A natural disaster can cause loss of life or damage property, and typically leaves some econo ...
s. It is supported by the
Civil Contingencies Secretariat, which is part of the
Cabinet Office.
The Civil Contingencies Committee is held in Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, giving the committee its popular name COBRA. However, this is not an official name, even if it is sometimes used by officials.
[: "It sounds great but it stands for Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms, so it's rather mundane," reflects Lord O'Donnell."]
The Civil Contingencies Committee, through the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, operates a website, ''UK Resilience'', which is intended as a central source of public information on British
civil defence
Civil defense ( en, region=gb, civil defence) or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state (generally non-combatants) from man-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mit ...
and
disaster preparedness activities.
See also
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ACCOLC
ACCOLC (Access Overload Control) was a procedure in the United Kingdom for restricting mobile telephone usage in the event of emergencies. It is similar to the GTPS ( Government Telephone Preference Scheme) for landlines.
This scheme allowed the ...
*
Civil defence
Civil defense ( en, region=gb, civil defence) or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state (generally non-combatants) from man-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mit ...
*
COBR
*
GTPS
The Government Telephone Preference Scheme (GTPS) was a British system for limiting outgoing calls from landlines if the network was overloaded during an emergency. Numbers registered under the GTPS were still be able to make outgoing calls if th ...
*
Intelligence and Security Committee
References
External links
Emergency planning
Emergency management in the United Kingdom
Committees of the United Kingdom Cabinet Office
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