Agenda item

Jennifer Cole, Senior Research Fellow, Resilience and Emergency Management at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) will present at the meeting.

Jennifer Cole, Senior Research Fellow in Resilience and Emergency Management at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) presented to the Fire Commission on emerging threats to national resilience. Threats to national resilience had previously been understood as incidents such as terrorist attacks, however the country was now moving towards a broader interpretation of emergencies to reflect the serious threats from incidents such as flooding, swine flu, foot and mouth disease and extreme weather.  This change has helped to create a different response to emergencies through local agencies cooperating to respond to the issue, rather than a response being driven by central government.

Members noted that as climate change continued, these sorts of issues could become more prevalent. The impact on the work of the Fire and Rescue Service would therefore be significant. 

Members welcomed the report and made a number of comments including:

•          There was a need to educate members of the public further so that in certain situations they were able to respond effectively to natural emergencies such as flooding. Fire and Rescue Services needed to be at the forefront of educating residents on what they could do to help themselves during flooding and other incidents.

•          Members discussed the potential for further work across the blue light services to address potential future emergencies and ensure a joined-up response.

•          With the reduction in funding for fire and rescue services it was important  to ensure that other services were engaged in learning the lessons from previous incidents. This would help to ensure greater resilience in the future.

Members were informed that at RUSI’s annual conference further detail on national resilience would be discussed.

Decision:

Members noted the report and the presentation.