On 17 November 2004 the Civil Contingencies Act (CCA 2004) received Royal Assent. The Act is in two parts. Part One of the Act places several emergency planning related duties on local authorities, as well as on a range of other Category 1 and Category 2 responders. These are described in Table 1 below:

Category One	Category Two
Local Authories Police Fire Ambulance & Health Enviropnment Agency Maritime & Coastguard Agency The Secretary of Trade	Electricity, Gas, Water, and Telecommunications Providers Railway, Airport, and Ferry Operators Harbour Authorities Health and Safety Executive

The duties include:

Risk Assessment Emergency Planning Training and Exercising

Business Continuity Recruitment Sharing Information Co-operation

Category Two responders will have a duty only to share information and to co-operate with Category One responders in fulfilment of their own duty.

Local Authorities also have an additional responsibility not only to ensure they have their own robust business continuity arrangements, but also to promote business continuity management as good practice within the local business community.

Part Two of the Act gives the Government Emergency Powers, which it can use in an emergency.