The Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS), created in July 2001, is the executive department of the British

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government object ...

responsible for emergency planning in the UK. The role of the secretariat is to ensure the United Kingdom's resilience against disruptive challenge, and to do this by working with others to anticipate, assess, prevent, prepare, respond and recover. Until its creation in 2001, emergency planning in Britain was the responsibility of the Home Office. The CCS also supports the

Civil Contingencies Committee The Civil Contingencies Committee is a British cabinet committee chaired by the Home Secretary. It is intended to deal with major crises such as terrorism or natural disasters. It is supported by the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, which is par ...

, also known as COBR (or popularly – but incorrectly – as COBRA).

Formation

In the aftermath of the Y2K bug scare, the fuel protests of 2000, flooding in autumn 2000, and the foot and mouth epidemic of 2001 the UK government felt that the existing emergency management policies and structures were inadequate to deal with natural or man-made disasters, and formed the Civil Contingencies Secretariat in July 2001, located in the Cabinet Office. Soon after the

9/11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

the remit of the CCS was expanded to include mitigating the consequences of a large scale terrorist attack. Until 2001 the Home Office carried out emergency preparedness planning through its

Emergency Planning Division {{Unreferenced, date=December 2009 From 1935 to 1971 civil defence in the United Kingdom was the responsibility of the Civil Defence Department. On the run-down of civil defence in 1971 the department was replaced by the Home Defence and Emergency ...

, which in turn replaced the

Home Defence and Emergency Services Division {{Unreferenced, date=April 2009 From 1935 to 1971 civil defence in the United Kingdom was the responsibility of the Civil Defence Department From 1935 to 1971 civil defence in the United Kingdom was the responsibility of the Civil Defence Departmen ...

. From 1935 to 1971 a separate department, called the

Civil Defence Department From 1935 to 1971 civil defence in the United Kingdom was the responsibility of the Civil Defence Department and resulted in the establishment during 1957 of the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation. On the run-down of civil defence i ...

(in the early years the Air Raid Precautions Department, Ministry of Home Security), existed.

Remit and reporting

In 2002

David Blunkett David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett, (born 6 June 1947) is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2015, and previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough ...

, then

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 nationa ...

, stated, in a written reply to a

parliamentary question A question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers (including the prime minister), which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be ca ...

: He went on to state: The

, often informally referred to as

COBR The Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBR) are meeting rooms in the Cabinet Office in London. These rooms are used for committees which co-ordinate the actions of government bodies in response to national or regional crises, or during overseas ev ...

from the name of the room used, is a forum for ministers and senior officials to discuss and manage serious (level 2) and catastrophic (level 3) emergencies. In 2010, the secretariat launched an emergency communications service based on the Skynet military communication satellite system, called High Integrity Telecommunications System, for use by

UK police Law enforcement in the United Kingdom is organised separately in each of the legal systems of the United Kingdom: England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Most law enforcement is carried out by police officers serving in regional pol ...

and other emergency services, primarily at Strategic Command Centres and at major events and emergencies. It replaced the earlier Emergency Communications Network.

Serco Serco Group plc is a British company with headquarters based in Hook, Hampshire, England. Serco primarily derives income as a contractor for the provision of government services, most prominently in the sectors of health, transport, justice, ...

operates the

Emergency Planning College The Emergency Planning College also known as "the Hawkhills" foremost a college, based in the United Kingdom which is involved in activities to promote organisational resilience. Since 2010 the college has been operated on behalf of the Cabinet O ...

Easingwold Easingwold is a market town, electoral ward and civil parish in the Hambleton District in North Yorkshire, England. Historically, part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, it had a population of 4,233 at the 2001 census, increasing to 4,627 at ...

, North Yorkshire under contract to the secretariat.

Structure

The secretariat is led by a director and initially comprised five divisions dealing with: *Assessment assessing known risks and scanning for future potential risks *Capability Management working with departments facing potential disruption, and advising on how to prevent or manage crisis *Communication and Learning including the News Co-ordination Centre in the Cabinet Office and the

*National Resilience Framework developing partnerships between governmental agencies, voluntary agencies, local communities and private sector groups *Programme Co-ordination providing secretariat support for the Civil Contingencies Committee In 2012, the CCS still had five sections, with a slightly different emphasis: *Capabilities *Local Response Capabilities *Emergency Planning College *Horizon Scanning & Response *Natural Hazards Team

Director of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat

Mike Granatt Mike Granatt is a public relations and communications professional, formerly a senior British civil servant, and the first head of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat of the Cabinet Office in 2001, the same year he was appointed a Companion of th ...

, CB (20012002) *Susan Scholefield, CMG (20022004) * Bruce Mann (20042009) *

Christina Scott Christina Martha Elena Scott (born 25 December 1974) is a British civil servant and diplomat. She served as Governor of Anguilla between 2013 and 2017, and was the first woman to hold the post. She has been Deputy Head of Mission at the Britis ...

(20092013) *Campbell McCafferty (20132016) *Katharine Hammond (20162020) *Roger Hargreaves (2020present)

Documents issued

The CCS has produced the following documents: *Emergency Response and Recovery which provides non-statutory guidance to accompany the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. First published in November 2005, it was last updated in October 2013.

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Emergency planning
– from Gov.uk
Risk assessment: how the risk of emergencies in the UK is assessed
– from Gov.uk
Preparation and planning for emergencies: the National Resilience Capabilities Programme
– from Gov.uk *
UKResilience twitter account
– from the Civil Contingencies Secretariat
Emergency Planning Society
– official website {{Cabinet Office Emergency management in the United Kingdom Cabinet Office (United Kingdom)