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Planning for a disaster is essential good business practise

Hopefully the plans will never need to be put into place, but it's better to be safe than sorry Very few small business owners plan on having a fire, burglary or flood - never mind being caught up in a terrorist incident.

Most will have insurance but more than half have no plan for keeping the business running in an emergency, according to a CBI/KPMG survey, despite 2005's London bombings and the Buncefield fuel depot explosion. Twenty four per cent of London firms lost business after the bombings and the Buncefield blast cost neighbouring companies £70 million.

Far too many organisations are still failing to plan

Research commissioned by Royal & SunAlliance (R&SA), the UK's second largest commercial insurer, has revealed that British businesses are ill-equipped and unprepared to cope in the event of a major incident occurring.

Despite repeated warning of the impact of not planning properly the survey found 59% of British businesses do not have a formal Business Continuity Plan. Only 14% of British businesses have reviewed their contingency plans in the light of last year's terrorist activity and 35% of British businesses are not insured should their existence be threatened by external events.

In recent years, British businesses have faced a number of external events that threatened their existence, such as foot and mouth disease, adverse weather conditions, petrol shortages, industrial disputes and terrorist activity.

Just under half of small firms in the UK have no plan in place to ensure that their business could survive an emergency or disaster., according to research from AXA.

Many are not covered against risks that have a much greater chance of hitting their business than terrorism, such as a fire or a flood. If the unexpected happens, companies without a contingency plan could lose thousands of pounds or even go out of business.

The insurer said the fact that these companies had such a plan was worrying because of the time it can take businesses to recover from a disaster. Research by AXA found that almost one in five small to medium-sized firms had been hit by a disaster.

One in 12 said it took them more than six months before they were up and running again and it took one in 20 of them more than a year to get their businesses back on track. AXA's risk control strategy manager Doug Barnett said: "Businesses face a number of challenges and risks and they need to do everything possible to reduce the chances of these happening. "They also need to have an effective plan in place to deal with them if they do.

Every year, thousands of enterprises fold but some of these could be saved if they had a strong business continuity plan in place." Even if a business does have plans in place it is important that companies tweak them so that they are prepared for potential seasonal risks and carry out annual test to see they will work.

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National Audit Office lauches Self Assessment tools for Local Authorities

The Civil Contingencies Act supports the promotion of greater resilience among public agencies and the wider local community.

The Act makes now an appropriate time for authorities to review current arrangements. It promotes business continuity as well as emergency planning, recognising that preparedness is an issue for the whole local authority and the businesses within the area. There is no preferred structure for delivering the services covered by the bill. Much will depend on local issues (for example local hazards such as the number of COMAH sites; the internal arrangements of the local authority regarding risk management and links between emergency planning, risk and business continuity arrangements.)

As forecast by the Continuity Forum, pressure is mounting on Business to ensure that Business Continuity Plans are at the heart of an organisations planning.

Much of the reason is the fear from the sector that still too few organisations are developing an effective response to the risks facing Business, particularly with regard to major Terror attacks and other events, such as the Blackout in South London last winter and the Telecoms Failure in Manchester this Spring. The industry is also concerned about the effects of the recent weather events which have disrupted businesses across the UK and caused millions of pounds of damage.