Emergencies
Advice for businesses
The information below will help you to protect your business from serious disruptions.
What is Business Continuity Management?
Business Continuity Management is a process that helps manage risks to the smooth running of an organisation or delivery of a service, ensuring continuity of critical functions in the event of a disruption, and effective recovery afterwards.
It is a generic management framework that is valid across the public, private and voluntary sectors. It is an ongoing process that helps organisations anticipate, prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disruptions, whatever their source and whatever aspect of the business they affect.
The primary 'business' of private sector organisations is the generation of profit, a process that Business Continuity Management will help ensure that the impact of emergencies on the day-to-day functions of your business is kept to a minimum, and that disruption to your critical business operations does not deepen the impact of the emergency on your employees, share-holders, partners, contractors, stakeholders and customers.
Why prepare for emergencies?
Because it makes real business sense. Emergencies can disrupt businesses, affecting profits and operations. This is bad for employees, shareholders, customers and communities.
The governments key advice to businesses is to ensure you have robust, flexible business continuity management that will ensure that the impact of any emergency on your business will be minimised, and should help your business recover quickly.
It makes sense to put in place Business Continuity Management arrangements because they help to:
- Develop a clear understanding as to how your organisations works
- Minimise the impact of a major incident to your business
- Protects the reputation of your business
- Produces clear cost benefits
Advice for those who have acetylene cylinders
Information and advice for your safety and others on the proper storage of acetylene gas, what steps you should take and if there is a safer alternative for you to choose.
Further information
Details on the principles of Business Continuity Management and how to complete a business continuity plan for your business.
Template Business Continuity Plan 
Word 224K
To help you start your Business Continuity Management planning, a free downloadable template Business Continuity Plan.
Template Business Continuity Plan Guidance Notes Word 50K
The guidance notes to help you put together your business continuity plan.
Lists the equipment you should have stored in a bag that can be taken in an emergency and will help your business recover.
Useful web links
Business Continuity Institute|
Professional body for those who work in business continuity.
MI5|
MI5 security advice, including descriptions of current threats.
Councils within the north east area of London provide advice to businesses.
