This is a presentation by Felicity Oswald-Nicholls at the RUSI Resilience Conference 2014.

1. Resilience from 2004 to 2014:
A UK perspective
Felicity Oswald-Nicholls
Deputy Director, Civil Contingencies Secretariat,
Cabinet Office, UK

2. What does resilience mean in the UK context?
How has our understanding evolved?
What is ‘good’ in terms of resilience?
What does the future look like for resilience?

3. Civil Contingencies Act 2004
Civil Contingencies Act 2004
Part 1 – Local Arrangements
Part 2 – Emergency Powers
Statutory Guidance - Emergency
Preparedness
Non-Statutory Guidance -
Emergency Response &
Recovery

4. Our fiveRs of resilience (2011)
British Standard for Organizational Resilience (BS65000)
(2014):
“the ability of an organization to anticipate, prepare for, and
respond and adapt to incremental change and sudden
disruptions in order to survive and prosper.”
Key concepts: prevent, prepare, adapt, protect, resist,
redundancy, response and recovery

5. UK Resilience – Delivered Together
1. Identifying
risks
4. Evaluating
Resilience
Horizon
scanning
Systematic risk
identification
Performance Management
Exercises
Real-life events
Communications
2. Assessing
risks
3. Building
Resilience
Generic Capabilities
Specific Plans
Business Continuity
Crisis Management
Systematic Risk
Assessment

6. Risk Identification and Assessment

7. National Risk Register 2013 -Threats

8. National Risk Register 2013 - Hazards

9. Building resilience

10. Who plays a role in building resilience?
CCCCoooommmmmmmmuuuunnnniiiittttiiiieeeessss
RReegguullaattoorrss
Government
Infrastructure
NNNNGGGGOOOOssss
Business

11. Example 1: Community Resilience
“Communities and individuals harnessing local resources and
expertise to help themselves in an emergency, in a way that
complements the response of the emergency services.”
UK Civil Protection Lexicon
HHoolliissttiicc Bespoke
Relevant
Organic
Flexible
Connected
Geographic
Active
Pragmatic Common-sense

12. Communities Prepared Hub
• Website for LRFs, local authorities,
emergency responders & local community
groups to access at:
www.epcollege.com/community-hub
• Free resources to access & share
• Sign up for the newsletter on the site
• Let us know about the resilience work your
organisation or local community group is
undertaking, at:
communities.prepared@cabinet-office.
x.gsi.gov.uk

13. Example 2: Winter preparedness
•Provides information and advice to individuals and
communities on how to prepare and plan for the impacts of
winter weather
www.metoffice.gov.uk/getreadyforwinter

14. Evaluating and improving

15. How has our understanding evolved?
Community resilience and Infrastructure
resilience
For example: Recommendation from the Pitt
report (2008) on the 2007 floods, that
Government, “...should establish a
programme to support & encourage
individuals & communities to be better
prepared & more self-reliant during
emergencies, allowing the authorities to focus
on those areas & people in greatest need.”

16. The 2010 National Security Strategy
Tier one: The National Security Council considered the following groups of risks to be those of
highest priority for UK national security looking ahead, taking account of both likelihood and impact.
• International terrorism affecting the UK or its interests, including a chemical, biological,
radiological or nuclear attack by terrorists; and/or a significant increase in the levels of terrorism
relating to Northern Ireland.
• Hostile attacks upon UK cyber space by other states and large scale cyber crime.
• A major accident or natural hazard which requires a national response, such as severe coastal
flooding affecting three or more regions of the UK, or an influenza pandemic.
• An international military crisis between states, drawing in the UK and its allies as well as other
states and nnoonn--ssttaattee aaccttoorrss..
Tier Two: The National Security Council considered the following groups of risks to be the next
highest priority looking ahead, taking account of both likelihood and impact. (For example, a CBRN
attack on the UK by a state was judged to be low likelihood, but high impact.)
• An attack on the UK or its overseas territories by another state or proxy using chemical,
biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) weapons.
• Risk of major instability, insurgency or civil war overseas which creates an environment that
terrorists can exploit to threaten the UK.
• A significant increase in the level of organised crime affecting the UK.
• Severe disruption to information received, transmitted or collected by satellites, possibly as a
result of a deliberate attack by a another state.

17. Future challenges :
?

18. We’re getting better, but there is still more to
do....

19. Early warnings from the Met Office of the St Jude’s Day storm

20. St Jude’s Day Storm – 28 October 2013