Link (Google html version of original Word doc that the quote below comes from)
Home page of source website: http://www.gos.gov.uk/national/
QUESTION & ANSWER SESSIONS
GAS
Q Gas companies may cut off supply to vital services such as hospitals during an emergency. How can establishments guard against this happening?
Jody James - Avon NHS Emergency Planning Adviser, Avon Ambulance Service NHS Trust
A Businesses can register as designated priority users through their gas supplier who would then approach DTI with an application. They need to pre-plan this and not wait until the incident. Their supply would then be protected.
Alan Briggs - Deputy Director Emergency Planning, DTI
Q Why are hospitals not protected automatically as obvious priorities?
East Somerset NHS Trust
A There was a public consultation in 1999 debating this issue and this is the resulting situation.
Applications would cover organisations up to a category 3 situation (where users refuse to be taken off supply will have this undertaken anyway).
There are other organisations that can also fall under the priority user scheme, such as care homes and other residential dwellings for people with physical disabilities etc.
Alan Briggs - Deputy Director Emergency Planning, DTI
Q The press has recently reported possible supply shortages. What is the real risk of this?
Mick Bullock, Head of Environmental Services, Caradon District Council
A Other arrangements are being made with Europe and elsewhere in the World.
Alan Briggs - Deputy Director Emergency Planning, DTI
Q Why isn?t the government storing stocks of supply, surely this is a strategic issue that they should be considering?
Gordon Hector, Head of Emergency Services, BANES council
A This is a commercial business and it is difficult to mix commercial and government issues. The government do not run the country?s energy system hence they do not get involved in these controversial issues.
However there is an energy review this year which will be looking into supply issues and risks.
Also the volume of storage required for national use would be unmanageable and therefore impossible hence no company undertakes this task.
Alan Briggs - Deputy Director Emergency Planning, DTI
Q Is anything being done to reduce the risk of domestic explosions due to failure in pipes in exceptional cold weather?
Nigel Carson, Deputy Director, SW RRT
A All metallic mains are being replaced. This reduces the risk of the mains fracturing. A survey is done each year and a risk is attributed to each metallic mains still existing so the replacement order can be established.
The current rate of replacement is double the amount of 3 years ago.
Liz Spierling, Commercial Manager, Wales & West Utilities
Q Is there any examples of when large end users have been asked to reduce use when there is shortage of supply?
Steve Howell, Civil Contingencies Officer, Somerset Local Authorities' Civil Contingencies Unit
A There isn?t any examples that can be given as the way gas operators deploy this has changed significantly over the last few years and supply is only reduced in emergencies now, whereas it used to be demand led.
Liz Spierling, Commercial Manager, Wales & West Utilities
Q Are key nodes through distribution centres risky sites?
Paul Rowlandson, Emergency Planning Director, GOSW
A They aren?t ?risky? and any issues would be dealt with as ?business as normal?, however we work with local emergency planners regarding these ?key? sites to ensure planning is robust. We also have internal contingency plans in place for these sites.
Liz Spierling, Commercial Manager, Wales & West Utilities
Q In the past there have been explosions caused by non anti-static work wear worn by gas operators. Has this issued been sorted?
Duncan White, Assistant regional New Dimension planner, Somerset Fire & Rescue Service
A This issue has been rectified and new kit has been supplied through the National Grid.
ELECTRICITY
Issues to be aware of: There can be a possible mis-match between demand and supply. If there is a shortfall in generation the Gov?t can impose the emergency supply code. This lists ?protected? customers who will not have a failure of supply. This list is extremely small and does not include hospitals..
Q In extreme weather situations is wind generated power more vulnerable?
Nigel Carson, Deputy Director, SW RRT
A No, the more diverse forms of generation we have increase the ability to continue supply.
Mike Green, Scottish & Southern Energy
Q Can back-up power be taken from private sources, such as the MOD?
Commodore Jamie Miller CBE, Naval Regional Officer, Royal Navy
A No, as there is a negligible supply from private sources. Also it is not possible to connect to domestic users from small generators as this would damage the network and supply demand could not be monitored.
Mike Green, Scottish & Southern Energy
Q Should Hospitals and major essential users invest in emergency generation equipment to guard against critical loss?
Alasdair Bell, Community Protection Manager, South Somerset District council
A All essential users should have these in place already and should have systems built in to business continuity plans. Risk assessments should also be completed and in place.
Mike Green, Scottish & Southern Energy
Q How reliant is the network on computer use and how robust is it?
Gordon Hector, Head of Emergency Services, BANES council
A As with all companies, it is very reliant on computers. However, the system has a number of layers of fallback and the level of firewall is very resilient.
Mike Green, Scottish & Southern Energy
DOWNSTREAM OIL
Q Why isn?t the funding for the downstream oil plans ringfenced?
Simon Hailwood, South Glos council
A The LGA requested that funding was not ringfenced, which would allow LA?s to decide for themselves the best way to allocate locally.
Paul Rowlandson, Emergency Planning Director, GOSW
Q La?s weren?t informed of the funding so it wasn?t built in when planning, therefore there is no funding within the LA to do the work yet there are government expectations.
Gordon Hector, Head of Emergency Services, BANES council
A Plans need to demonstrate resilience as LA?s are accountable for the funding regardless of the allocation locally.
Government cannot dictate how LA?s work and therefore how funding is split within the authority; they can only give the requirements then leave the LA?s to undertake these as they see fit.
Paul Rowlandson, Emergency Planning Director, GOSW
The Downstream oil funding was not been allocated yet, it is 2006/7 & 2007/8 funding so will start in next years budget.
Alan Briggs - Deputy Director Emergency Planning, DTI
COMMUNCATIONS
Issues to be aware of: There are 20+ infrastructure providers therefore the industry is complicated. LRF?s need to consider in planning the possible damage to communications and the ?knock-on? effects of this.
Telephone exchanges work off generated power therefore issue if power is lost. Cell sites for mobile stations are lost after hours as only short-life battery back-up.
All organisations need to put in place plans and train against them to ensure Cat 2?s can enter Cat1 shutdown (cordon) areas. Although telecoms have never really had an issue with this except during a CBRN incident, delays in responding to incidents can be caused having to get authorisation sent through down the line.
BT are gaining a capability to operate in a protective suit and learning what tasks can be done and what can?t whilst wearing it. It is not known when this capability will be in place.
Q Previously, during an incident, the emergency services have not been treated as a priority in reconnection but put in a queue. Is this still the case?
Paul Rowlandson, Emergency Planning Director, GOSW
A There is no priority reconnection plan in place and the regulatory process states that BT cannot treat one customer more favourable than another if they are not paying for that service. During an incident, the reconnection order is determined at the time with large numbers of customers being dealt with first (i.e. if a large number can be reconnected by one piece of cable being fixed)
Dave Groom, BT Emergency Planning Customer Interface and Policy Manager, BT
RAYNET
Q How many members of Raynet are there and what communications tools do they have?
Commander Philip Unwin, Deputy Naval Regional Officer
A There are 200 volunteers in the SW. They have handheld radios and mobile base stations. Voice is the main method of communication, however data is being investigated and morse can still be used if the only method remaining.
Chris Hampson, Zone 7 co-ordinator, RAYNET
WATER
Issues: Water companies must be able to supply up to 10 litres of water per person within 24 hours. This can be done through various methods including bottled supply. Establishing who and where vulnerable people are during an incident is a problem. Organisations are reliant on accurate LA records.
Q As there is only one source of chlorine in the UK, how important would its loss be?
Alan Briggs - Deputy Director Emergency Planning, DTI
A There is plenty in Europe and it is easy to import, plus companies can generate their own chlorine.
Paul Fenton, Resilience Manager, Southern Water
Q During a water shortage situation, can water be brought from other areas?
A It is logistically impractical to import from elsewhere as the infrastructure is not in place.
Paul Fenton, Resilience Manager, Southern Water
TRANSPORT
Q Who has the responsibility for the welfare of road users?
Steve Howell, Civil Contingencies Officer, Somerset Local Authorities' Civil Contingencies Unit
A There is uncertainty as to who?s responsibility this is. Ministers and central government should be making a decision this spring.
Malcolm Wilkinson, Area performance manager, Highways Agency
Q There have been issues in the past with mixed messages being communicated by the media during an incident. Are communications to the public being improved?
Nigel Carson, Deputy Director, SW RRT
A The media tend to deliver messages given by the public caught up in the incident rather than directly from the organisations involved.
The Highways Agency are trying their media involvement and co-ordinating responses country-wide.
Malcolm Wilkinson, Area performance manager, Highways Agency
Q Do HA traffic Officers have any statutory powers?
Alan George, Regional Executive Officer, SW of England Rescue Association
A Officers can stop and direct traffic and remove abandoned vehicles. They cannot enforce criminality.
Malcolm Wilkinson, Area performance manager, Highways Agency
FEEDBACK
There were 90 attendees at the event of which we received 51 completed feedback forms.
Venue/catering
82% of attendees felt the venue was good to excellent.
General feedback was made regarding the temperature of the room.
Administration prior to the event
This was considered to be good to excellent by 92 % of attendees.
Organisation at the event
This was considered to be good to excellent by 92 %.
Comments stated improvement need to be made to both IT and PA equipment and usage.
Presentations
Overall, very positive feedback from attendees. It was considered to be a very good mix of presentations and very informative material.
However there was general disappointment regarding the lack of speakers from the telecoms industry.
Speakers should read less from slides and some text was too small for attendees to see. At times there were too much technical information given and not enough focus on emergency response.
There were comments made regarding lack of copies of presentations and speaker biogs in the delegate packs. This was at the request of the speakers who in the main wanted to be seen as speaking on behalf of their industry rather than individual companies. Presentations had information included for the day only and is removed on the downloadable version.
Other supporting comments were:
Overall the event was considered very useful and met all the objectives planned. It focussed minds to the tasks in hand and gave a very valuable networking opportunity.
Ideas for the next event:
Risks
Communications/Telecoms
Warning & Informing
RCCC response arrangements
Mass Fatalities/Temporary Mortuary/Family Assistance Centre planning
Gold/Silver interaction
Other questions raised on feedback:
Q Would it be possible to ask each of the agencies for a point of contact at 'Planning level' based upon Police Force boundaries. AND - the contact details of the 'appropriate' person to call in at both ' Tactical' and 'Strategic' levels in the event of an incident occurring?
Brian Heap, Dorset Police
A Linking to Gold, and depending on the incident, there may be no need for any utilities presence in Gold, but there may be a need to communicate to Gold about concerns or options. Gold is about allocating Strategy, Allocation of scarce resources, and Forward Planning the next phase of the operation, so often Consequence Management Committee will be the main driver.
Generally where there is a need, the police will call the relevant utilities organisations from the available emergency numbers already at their disposal.
Linking to Bronze or Silver is probably more likely. Silver may initiate the dialogue as above. Utilities could on occasion be directed to silver through Gold command.
Overall, the involvement and position of the utilities in the command structure will always be dependent on the nature and scale of the incident and consequently there can be no one model.
Q Community risk assessments are not yet accessible on some police websites, when will we be able to view it and consider what is in our area?
Annette Crew, North Devon Primary Care Trust
A Avon & Somerset
Avon and Somerset Local Resilience Forum Community Risk Register was published on 14 Nov 05 and is hosted on the Avon and Somerset Constabulary website at: http://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/in ... 37#DID_677 (this is the first result from a search using their on-line search engine using "community risk register" so should be found easily).
It is V2.1 (dated Jan 06) and the "NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED" version is downloadable from the website.
Devon & Cornwall
Completed but not published yet
Dorset
Will be completed and published shortly
Gloucestershire
Will be completed and published shortly
Wiltshire
Available on the Wiltshire Constabulary Website. Click into Quick links on home page and select Major Incident Planning. Click on the Command structure under the section 'What Police do in a Major Incident'. Click on LRF and it will display the page with all the Community Risk Register items and some of our LRF documents.
Q Concerns re; 1) The vital utilities who appear to have eclectic 'offshore' ownership. I have a general concern for National Resilience in a crisis.
2) Vulnerable people were mentioned in most presentations but no one seems to know who key persons are or where to find them. Is there a National or regional strategy to categorise or prioritise this group?
Glynn Laverack, HPA
A 1) Company Boards have legal obligations to act in the best interests of their shareholders, normally financial interests. There can be fewer faster ways of losing your market and profitability than refusing to assist in the event of a national emergency. Also energy/utility legislation (the Energy Act 1976 and the CCA 2004 are two examples) are in force to compel recalcitrant companies to act in the way that the Government requires.
Recently there has been talk in the media of Gazprom (owned by the Russian government) making a bid for Centrica. Clearly this is not a good thing and the BBC reported on Feb 03:
"Any new ownership would face robust scrutiny by the regulatory regime before entering the UK market," the DTI said in a statement.
"The energy market regulator Ofgem and the competition authorities would have to be satisfied that consumers' interests were assured by any merger activity".
2) Answered in questions above.
Q It would have been helpful if we could have a brief from the fuel supply industry (i.e. petrol etc) so that we responders might have some idea how a fuel drivers strike or embargo might impact on our day to day business.
Capt (RTD) Derrick Morgan, RNRLO
A We (RRT) shall endeavour to obtain this and forward to LRF?s.
