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Civil Contingencies Secretariat

Head of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat

Bruce Mann

What are our key responsibilities?

The Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS) guides and co-ordinates the activity taking place across government departments and wider stakeholders to ensure that the UK is resilient to any event which could pose a disruptive challenge to the welfare and day to day activities of the UK. This could include the impacts of natural hazards such as flooding and foot and mouth disease, major accidents as well as the consequences of terrorist activity.

Our main objectives are:

• Effective short term horizon scanning and medium term risk assessment at national, regional and local levels;
• Ensuring readiness to respond to disruptive challenges and provision of an effective and co-ordinated crisis management response;
• Formulating generic plans and capabilities of emergency services and other responders to deal with the full range of emergencies judged by the National Risk Assessment process to have less than significant or catastrophic impacts;
• Building specific plans and capabilities for those risks judged by the National Risk Assessment process to have significant or catastrophic impacts;
• Enhanced business continuity management to maintain provision of services or recover as quickly as possible;
• Community resilience encompassing local organisations as well as communities, families and individuals;
• Providing a centre of excellence for training on Emergency Planning at our Emergency Planning College.

We also provide the public with factual information about preparing for emergencies [Directgov website].

Roles and Co-ordination

UK Resilience

Civil Resilience is the responsibility of many government departments and their agencies as well as stakeholders in the emergency services, voluntary sector and key industries such as utilities and transport providers.

CCS maintain the UK Resilience section of the Cabinet Office website, which provides useful information and guidance to those with responsibility for building resilience in the emergency services and other responder organisations.

Cabinet Committees

The CCS provides the secretariat to official and Ministerial committees which oversee the policy and communications work on resilience, in the preparation, response and recovery stages (see the current list of Cabinet Committees).

Departments and key stakeholders who play a role in resilience are represented on the committees and provide submissions on particular issues as necessary. In addition to drafting papers for the issues on which CCS leads, the secretariat manages committee business:

• recording conclusions from Committees
• following up actions and decisions from Cabinet Committees
• commissioning papers and briefing for Cabinet Committees
• briefing and drafting advice for Committee Chairs
• chairing meetings of official-level interdepartmental groups to help steer policy agendas
• closely monitoring policy areas and offering strategic advice

The following links give more detailed information on Cabinet Committees and handling Cabinet Committee business:

• Cabinet Committees
• Handling Cabinet Committee business