Civil Contingencies

Government plans for new volunteer Army

21/03/2008 Gordon Brown wants tens of thousands of Britons to join a new volunteer force to help the Government respond and help tackle boost resources in handling threats to our communities from flooding right through to terrorism. 

The Prime Minister also said ministers will also publish an annual risk register of the top threats facing Britain, from the Al Qaeda terror threat to flooding and cyber crime. The new force, called a new Civil Protection Network, will be based on the local Neighbourhood Watch schemes and will link into Local Authority Planning The Prime Minister said he wanted to see “improved resilience against emergencies" from floods to terrorist attacks. This would take “not the old Cold War idea of civil defence but a new form of civil protection". 

Major power failure would leave gas & electricity companies in jeopardy

Most gas and electricity companies rely on commercial mobile phone networks that would stop working in the event of a major power failure. Public mobile networks have limited battery back-up which, once exhausted, would leave engineers working to restore vital utilities unable to communicate.

The situation is not a result of mismanagement on the part of either energy companies or mobile phone network operators, but exposes the need for a high-level overview of interdependencies in the UK utility sector.