Preparedness

Most of what determines the outcome of an emergency is settled before it begins. The Emergency Management Department of the Velocity Interoperability Network publishes the guidance below so that households and member organisations know what to prepare, what the Department will do, and where the two meet. It applies at all six principal sites of the Network and to the accommodation attached to them.

The guidance is deliberately modest. It asks for a small number of things that can be done in an afternoon and checked twice a year, and it prefers arrangements that do not depend on electricity, on a working network connection or on a charged device — because those are the first things an emergency takes away. Of the 41 incidents recorded across the sites of the Network in the transition period to 5 September 2026, 16 involved a loss of power and 9 a loss of network connectivity.

Preparing a household. The nine steps below are the whole of what the Department asks of a household. They are given in the order in which they are best done.

1. 1

   Step 1: Learn the four alert levels

   Normal, Advisory, Alert and Emergency. Each level states what the Department will do and what is expected of you. Read them once now, so that an alert does not have to be interpreted under pressure.

2. 2

   Step 2: Register an address for Network alerts

   Write to the Department with your name, your staff or citizen identification number, the site you are attached to and the email address at which you wish to be warned. Register a second address for another adult in the household if you can. Tell the Department when an address changes.

3. 3

   Step 3: Agree where your household will meet

   Choose two places: one just outside your home, for a fire or a sudden evacuation, and one away from your immediate area, for the case where you cannot return home. Make sure every member of the household knows both, including children old enough to travel alone.

4. 4

   Step 4: Write down the details you rely on a device to hold

   The names and addresses of the people you would need to reach, your site emergency controller, your employer's out-of-hours arrangements and your own medical details. Keep the list on paper, in a place every adult in the household knows, and give a copy to someone outside your household.

5. 5

   Step 5: Keep three days of water, food and medicine

   Three litres of drinking water per person per day; food that needs no cooking and no refrigeration; and a supply of any regular medicine sufficient for three days, kept in its original packaging with the prescription details. Check the dates twice a year and replace what is out of date.

6. 6

   Step 6: Keep a torch, spare batteries and a battery radio

   Power failure is the most common cause of disruption recorded at the sites of the Network. A torch and a radio that do not depend on the mains, and batteries kept apart from the devices, will let you receive Network alerts when the broadcast arrangements of the Network are the only channel working.

7. 7

   Step 7: Learn how to shut off water and electricity where you live

   Find the stopcock and the consumer unit, make sure they can be reached without moving anything heavy, and show every adult in the household how to operate them. If you live in accommodation provided at a site, the site emergency plan records who may do this and how they are called.

8. 8

   Step 8: Plan for anyone who would need help to leave

   If a member of your household could not leave the building unaided, tell your site emergency controller so that the person is recorded on the site register of persons requiring assistance. The register is held at the site and used by the response team; it is not published.

9. 9

   Step 9: Review the whole plan every six months

   Preparations decay quietly. Twice a year, check the supplies, confirm the registered addresses are still correct, and walk the route from your home or your workplace to the assembly point. The Department publishes a reminder in the Newsroom each March and September.

What to keep, and how often to check it. The table below sets out the supplies the Department recommends a household hold, the quantity, and the interval at which each should be checked. Quantities are given for three days, which is the period within which the Department expects to restore water, power and access at a site of the Network.

Arrangements at the sites. The measures below are held by the Department and by the member organisations at each of the six principal sites. Staff and citizens do not have to arrange any of them, but they should know which of them apply where they work and live.

Assembly points

Every site has at least two assembly points, one of which can be reached without crossing an open yard or a road. They are marked at the site and recorded in the site emergency plan. Staff should know the assembly point for the building they work in and one alternative.

The site emergency controller

One controller at each principal site holds the site emergency plan and directs the response at that site until the Network Coordination Centre assumes direction. The controller is named in the plan, with two deputies, so that the duty is always held.

Site response teams

186 members of staff of member organisations are trained by the Department and remain on call at their own sites. They carry out the first search of a building, direct people to the assembly points and report the position to the controller. They may be directed to another site by the Centre.

Local warning arrangements

Each site repeats a Network alert by the means recorded in its plan: the site address system, the alerting of every occupied building by a member of the response team, and a written notice at each entrance. A site alert is never issued by one means alone.

Refuge and shelter

Each site emergency plan names the buildings that may be used as refuge when leaving the site is more dangerous than staying, together with the number of people each can hold and the length of time it can be occupied without resupply.

Registers of persons requiring assistance

Each site keeps a register of people who would need help to leave a building. It is compiled from what staff and citizens tell the controller, is held at the site, is reviewed every six months, and is used only for the response.

Equipment and reserve supplies

Each site holds reserve lighting, first aid materials, water and the equipment named in its plan. Stocks are checked by the controller every three months and after every incident or exercise in which they were used.

Site exercises

Each site is exercised at least once a year against its own plan, and takes part in the Network exercise programme. Findings are published by the Department and carried into the revised plan.

Preparedness for member organisations. A member organisation occupying premises at a site of the Network is required to nominate a point of contact for the site emergency controller, to keep the parts of the site emergency plan that concern its own premises current, to release trained members of the site response team when they are called, and to take part in the annual site exercise. Organisations that have not yet nominated a point of contact should write to the Department.

The alert levels and how to register for alerts are set out on the Network Alert Levels page; the plans that govern each site and hazard on the Register of Emergency Plans page; and what happens once an emergency is declared on the Response page. Enquiries and registrations may be sent to contact@emergencies.gov.vin.