Annex D
CONTINGENCIES AND
RESPONSE
1. TRANSEC is mainly focused on seeking
to prevent terrorist attacks. Response to incidents, as we saw
on 7 July, is primarily a matter for the emergency services, working
in close co-operation with staff from the utilities and local
authorities (primary and secondary responders, as they are designated
in the Civil Contingencies Act). TRANSEC is not the funder of
any of these responders and is not empowered to direct their response
activities. Nor would it wish to direct because it cannot be as
expert in judging what is the best way to handle an incident underground,
for example, as either the people who run the system or the highly
trained emergency response personnel.
2. It does nonetheless have some important
contributions to deliver. The aim of this work is to ensure that:
— at the strategic level, DfT plays
its part in government-wide preparations for crisis and in exercises
on contingency planning;
— individual divisions are ready to
deliver what may be required of them in a crisis response (such
as authorisation of air exclusion zones or relaxation of restrictions
on drivers' hours); and
— there is dialogue with industry about
contingency planning, so that TRANSEC can share information about
risks and work together intelligently in a crisis.
3. TRANSEC also quality controls the emergency
plans held by key divisions within DfT, setting out how they will
deliver their part of a response to crisis, including one occurring
without notice and/or "out of hours".
4. Ministers have agreed that it is not
appropriate for the Department to audit transport operators' own
contingency plans. However, TRANSEC has been stepping up contacts
with industry on contingency planning to ensure that the transport
sector has adequate information on developments (eg on current
threats and hazards) to enable them to maintain, update and regularly
exercise their plans.
5. Many contingency plans are regularly
called into play to meet day to day problems such as breakdowns,
bomb alerts or unplanned closures of transport systems. Along
with partners such as the Regional Resilience Teams, TRANSEC seeks
to add value at the higher level, where there is a need to ensure
that plans consider wider events and indirect impacts. The value
of exercises has been repeatedly mentioned by responders in debriefs
following 7 July. These exercises not only model reality very
accurately, but contribute to the familiarity and excellent joint
working that was seen from all responders on 7 July.
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