2 Emergency response
9. Adaptation involves measures to prevent damage
and disruption from extreme weather events. Because it is not
practicable, even if it were affordable, to defend against all
threats in all locations, adaptation also encompasses the response
to such events, to minimise the disruption that inevitably will
occur. As the ASC put it, emergency response is a different type
of adaptation as it "extends into the 'respond and recover'
rather than just the 'prepare' aspects of climate change adaptation".[18]
The ASC highlighted that exposure and vulnerability to extreme
weather impacts is increasing and climate change is likely to
lead to increased river, coastal and surface water flooding in
England. The 2013-14 winter flooding was a stark reminder of our
vulnerability to such weather extremes; the response to which
was assessed by the Fire Brigades Union as "the largest deployment
by the fire and rescue services since [the] Second World War".[19]
10. The ASC report noted that "emergency response
and recovery are needed when preventative measures alone do not
provide complete protection against an extreme weather event",[20]
and that "organisations involved in emergency response will
need to be able to cope with the increasing frequency and intensity
of severe weather expected with climate change".[21]
Lord Krebs told us that "we have to have an effective system
to respond" to extreme weather events.[22]
Civil Contingencies Act
11. Emergency response, whether to extreme weather
or other events, is shaped at the highest level by the Civil Contingencies
Act 2004. This created the first single statutory and regulatory
framework for civil protection in the UK.[23]
Daniel Johns told us that the Act has created a "very strong
legal framework for emergency planning".[24]
The National Security Strategy identifies high priority risks
and the Civil Contingencies Secretariat in the Cabinet Office
produces the National Risk Assessment, to guide planning for those
major risks over the following five years. The Assessment addresses
major coastal or river flooding, droughts, heatwaves, cold spells,
wildfire, and animal or human disease outbreaks. It also covers
terrorist attack and major industrial accidents. A separate National
Security Risk Assessment looks 5 to 20 years ahead.[25]
12. The Cabinet Office Civil Contingencies Secretariat
coordinates local resilience alongside DCLG. Individual departments
and agencies have responsibility for advising and preparing for
events that fall within their remit, including Defra which leads
on flooding and drought. At the local level, emergency response
is led by 'category 1' and 'category 2' responders. In each part
of the country they work together in one of 38 Local Resilience
Forums. Paul Crick from Kent County Council explained to us how
the Kent Resilience Forum emergency response system brings together
many organisations:
[Kent Resilience Forum] is chaired by Kent police
but the partners around the table range from district councils,
police, Kent fire and rescue, other partners such as ambulance
and coastguard—the usual category 1 and category 2 responders
… Because partners have seen the benefit of that emergency
agency working, the Environment Agency now sit within that team
two to three days a week, as do public health now with the public
health potential issues that could be on the horizon. Partners
are beginning to join up in creating that one big team. It is
very much a multi-agency approach.[26]
DCLG and the Cabinet Office are involved when an
event spans more than one Local Resilience Forum boundary, or
where the severity of the event causes central Government to lead
the response through the 'COBRA' ministerial emergency committee.
Capabilities and resources
13. The effectiveness of plans and responses to emergencies
is reviewed through the National Resilience Capabilities Programme,
test exercises, and both internal and independent external reviews.
Oliver Letwin, Minister for Government Policy, told us that "what
we have started to learn to do is to build up capacities that
enable us at the centre to reinforce local effort in advance".[27]
He explained that the Cabinet Office is planning to consider how
the risks from climate change might alter the way the National
Risk Assessment (a 5-year forward look) and the National Security
Risk Assessment (a 20 year forward look) are developed. He explained
that part of the review of capabilities would involve:
a reassessment of what it means to have a one
in 100 or one in 200, or one in 1,000 or one in 10,000 risk of
something occurring. If that was true for a particular thing in
1999, it is not going to necessarily be true in 2020. You have
to ask yourself what changes have occurred that would change that
risk assessment, and that is what we are in the process of doing.
[A] combination of a more sophisticated, more
real-time approach to forecasting likelihood, with more fine-grained
understanding of which risks really matter most, should produce
a graph that more accurately enables us to focus on the right
things as our priorities.[28]
14. However, the National Flood Forum believed that
further clarity on roles and responsibilities in emergencies was
required.[29] And Daniel
Johns told us that when the ASC had looked at emergency planning
it found that:
There were concerns about the level of capability
to manage certain types of emergency, so while the Cabinet Office
runs a national capability survey every other year, primarily
it talks about processes: do you have a plan for this; do you
know what to do in the event of that? It does not ask questions
such as, "What assets and what capability do you have to
respond to certain types of emergency?"[30]
He concluded that "there are still some shortcomings
around resources, information and certain aspects of capability".[31]
The ASC wanted the Government to review resourcing levels "to
ensure there are sufficient trained personnel, and assets, available
to respond in an emergency".[32]
The Fire Brigades Union found that:
With 6,500 fewer firefighters now than
at the time of 2007 floods, the UK today is less flood-resilient
than it was just a few years ago, with an over-reliance on volunteers
who for understandable reasons may not always be available.[33]
Concerns were expressed that budget cuts at a local
level might undermine the emergency response systems. Kristen
Guida from Climate UK told us that "we have devolved a lot
of responsibility down to local areas, which are haemorrhaging
in terms of resource, and we are going to have to monitor this
adaptation programme at some point".[34]
A flexible response
15. Alex Nickson from the Local Adaptation Advisory
Panel told us that "resilience is about how we can avoid
or limit the damage, respond to it effectively and then return
to a more resilient place afterwards so that we are more resilient
again to the next event", but also that local resilience
groups were "too response-focused" because their raison
d'être comes from the Cabinet Office.[35]
Oliver Letwin believed, however, that overall "we have a
pretty well-developed system for dealing with emergencies"
which has been "tested over and over and … mostly it
has worked".[36]
He explained that:
You have to have a well-orchestrated system for
finding out what is happening, get the right collection of people
in the right place to work out how to deal with what is happening,
have the right co-ordination between those people and other people
in other parts of the country to make sure that the thing is carried
out efficiently, with back-up at the centre for those who find
that they do not have sufficient resources locally. That is what
the system of COBRA and the local resilience forums achieves.[37]
16. He told us that the Civil Contingencies Secretariat
does a "really terrific job" to keep under review previous
responses which it then uses "to improve on the process for
the next one".[38]
Similarly, Lord Krebs thought that "the emergency planning
system is pretty good",[39]
and the ASC praised the way lessons were learned following previous
emergencies, such as the 2007 floods.[40]
The ASC's progress report noted that:
Emergency services provide a multi-purpose capacity
to respond to unexpected crises. Given the uncertainties around
future climate change, in particular around extreme events, a
flexible response capability is a good way of building societal
resilience. [41]
17. The Government's National Security Strategy addresses
not just flooding and severe weather but also includes extremism,
counter-terrorism and cyber security. Oliver Letwin emphasised
the need for a flexible system with people "knowing what
to do if".[42] There
was little to be gained in terms of response from seeking to identify
whether the emergency in question was a terrorism related or a
natural event. He told us that "we have avoided the mistake
of fashioning the response according to the cause, and instead
fashioned a response according to the problem".[43]
A 'Horizon Scanning Group' is looking into the future "to
imagine what might happen, and might be a concern or an opportunity,
and then to see how far we can prepare ourselves to deal with
[it] should it materialise".[44]
He told us that this work was still in its early years and that
"You cannot have a perfectly developed plan for what might
happen 50 years from now, but if you have not thought about it
you will certainly be surprised by something you had not thought
about."[45]
Conclusion
18. The emergency response framework for dealing
with extreme weather (and other events) has been repeatedly tested
and there are established structures through which the relevant
central and local authorities learn lessons and integrate these
into improving systems. Cuts to local authorities' and emergency
services' budgets may be reducing the capacity of local emergency
responders to deal with extreme weather events when required.
Without waiting for the ASC's statutory report on the NAP
in July 2015 or the results of the Government's 'horizon scanning'
of future risks and threats, the Government should commission
a review of the physical resources, capacity and skills available
for emergency response as well as the coordination between
all of the organisations involved, at both national and local
level.
18 ASC, Managing climate risks to well-being and the economy
(July 2014), p164 Back
19
Fire Brigades Union, Inundated: The lessons of recent flooding for the fire and rescue service
(February, 2015) Back
20
ASC, Managing climate risks to well-being and the economy (July
2014), p163 Back
21
ibid, p163 Back
22
Q282 Back
23
Civil Contingencies Act 2004. Back
24
Q283 Back
25
ASC, Managing climate risks to well-being and the economy (July
2014), p166 Back
26
Q9 Back
27
Q326 Back
28
Q324 Back
29
National Flood Forum (CCA0009), para 7 Back
30
Q283 Back
31
Q283 Back
32
ASC, Managing climate risks to well-being and the economy, (July
2014), p185 Back
33
Fire Brigades Union, Inundated: The lessons of recent flooding for the fire and rescue service,
(February, 2015), p5 Back
34
Q11 Back
35
Q18 Back
36
Q325 Back
37
Q325 Back
38
Q326 Back
39
Q282 Back
40
ASC, Managing climate risks to well-being and the economy (July
2014), p176 Back
41
Ibid, p165 Back
42
Q325 Back
43
Q328 Back
44
Q327 Back
45
Q325 Back
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