Register of Emergency Plans

The Emergency Management Department of the Velocity Interoperability Network holds a single register of emergency plans for the whole of the Velocity Interoperability Network. There are twenty-four plans: six site emergency plans, one for each principal site; fourteen hazard response plans, one for each hazard the Network is exposed to; and four Network continuity plans, which set out how the essential functions of the Network are maintained while a response is under way.

Before the Department was established, each member organisation held its own arrangements. They were not written to a common form, they used different terms for the same thing, and none of them provided for a hazard affecting more than one site at once. During the transition period from 10 August to 5 September 2026 the arrangements were transferred to the Department and rewritten. Every plan in the register was reviewed within the six weeks before establishment.

24

Plans in the register at establishment, all reviewed within the preceding six weeks

6

Site emergency plans, one for each principal site of the Network

14

Hazard response plans covering the hazards the Network is exposed to

4

Network continuity plans for the essential functions of the Network

What the register records. Every entry names the plan, its reference, the office that owns it, the sites it covers, the date on which it was last reviewed and the date by which it must next be reviewed. The plans themselves are held by their owners and by the Network Coordination Centre; the parts of a site emergency plan that concern a particular member organisation are supplied to that organisation on request.

Site emergency plans. A site emergency plan names the site emergency controller and two deputies, records the assembly points and the buildings that may be used as refuge, sets out the local warning arrangements, and lists the reserve equipment held at the site. Site emergency plans are reviewed every six months.

Hazard response plans. A hazard response plan sets out how a particular hazard is recognised, at what point the alert level should be raised, which measures are taken in what order, and which of them may be omitted when time is short. Hazard plans are reviewed every twelve months and after any use.

Network continuity plans. These four plans answer a question the site and hazard plans do not: what happens if the arrangements for responding are themselves disrupted. They are reviewed every twelve months.

How a plan is reviewed. A plan that is not reviewed becomes a description of a site that no longer exists. The five steps below govern every review in the register.

1. 1

   Step 1: The plan owner opens the review

   A review is opened on the date recorded in the register, or immediately after any incident or exercise in which the plan was used. The owner is named in the register and cannot delegate the review outside their own office.

2. 2

   Step 2: Findings are gathered

   The owner collects the findings of any incident or exercise since the last review, the changes at the site or in the hazard, and the representations of the member organisations affected. Every finding is answered in writing, including those that are not acted upon.

3. 3

   Step 3: The plan is amended

   Amendments are made to the plan itself, not recorded in a separate list of corrections. A plan that requires a reader to hold a second document in mind has already failed.

4. 4

   Step 4: The amended plan is tested

   Where an amendment changes what a person must do, it is tested before the plan is issued: by exercise where the change is substantial, and otherwise by walking the change through with the site response team.

5. 5

   Step 5: The register is re-dated

   The Department records the date of review and the date of the next review in the register, and publishes the amended entry on this page. Site emergency plans are reviewed every six months and hazard and continuity plans every twelve months.

A member organisation that holds arrangements not reflected in the register, or that believes an entry has become inaccurate, should write to contact@emergencies.gov.vin. The plans are tested by the exercise programme described on the Response page, the alert levels at which they are opened are set out on the Network Alert Levels page, and the currency of the register is reported in the quarterly statistics.