Emergency Responder Interoperability – Lexicon

Lexicon of UK Civil Protection Terminology

Version 2.0.1, 18 January 2011

Without a common understanding of what specific terms and phrases mean, multi-agency working will always carry the risk of potentially serious misunderstandings, the consequences of which could be extremely severe. Since 2007 CCS has been working with a wide range of partners to build and maintain a single point of reference for civil protection terminology as one of the underpinning elements of interoperable communications and coherent multi-agency working.

A lexicon is a collection of terms from a specific area of work or knowledge that are defined and associated with additional user-relevant information. This lexicon establishes common, agreed definitions for terms used in the multi-agency business of civil protection. Future versions will build on this, encompassing a wider range of the terminology used across the range of Integrated Emergency Management activities. When future versions are released they will be published here.

The latest release, Version 2.0.1, was published in January 2011 as an Excel spreadsheet.

Please note that the glossary of terms on the National Resilience Extranet also reflects the latest version of the Lexicon.

You are encouraged to cross-reference definitions given in your own organisation’s documents to the Lexicon and adopt the definitions given in the Lexicon. If you wish to discuss any of the definitions or suggest additional terms for inclusion contact details are given in the spreadsheet, and we welcome your thoughts and contributions.

Related to the lexicon of civil protection terminology, Cabinet Office has also created a set of common map symbols for emergency responders.

Olympic and Paralympic Games Command, Coordination and Communication (C3) Glossary

Version 1.1, 18 April 2012

Cabinet Office and Government Olympic Executive have collated a glossary of terminology relating to the Olympic and Paralympic Games Command, Coordination and Communication (C3) arrangements. Version 1.1 has now been published.

The Olympics glossary is comprised of inputs from the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and Government Departments and does not attempt to replicate the wider civil protection lexicon. The majority of entries are limited to acronyms / abbreviations and their full titles/terms. Others include a definition and a few include associated notes, and this disparity is because the glossary has been collated from multiple sources, some of which are more comprehensive than others.

There are terms appearing in the glossary that share an acronym, which creates clear scope for confusion under certain circumstances. The glossary can explain what an acronym might stand for, but it cannot tell you definitively which one is relevant where there are more than one potential meanings. When writing documents practitioners need to observe the discipline of defining acronyms and abbreviations when they are first used in any context or document.

We welcome further additions to the glossary and any comments that would enhance its accuracy and clarity - please email robert.macfarlane@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk with any queries, edits or additions with OLYMPICS GLOSSARY in the subject line. Thank you.