The Civil Contingencies Act (2004) places a legal duty on the wide range of responders to carry out risk assessments and maintain them in a Community Risk Register.

This Community Risk Register is the first step in the emergency planning process; it ensures that planning and other work is carried out in proportion to the risk.

Prior to the CCA responders were already basing their planning on a variety of planning assumptions and expert advice. The work being done on Risk Assessment is proving that these assumptions were correct and in the main the generic emergency plans already in place should be able to mitigate the effects of an emergency.

The purpose of the Community Risk Register is:

• To ensure that local responders have an accurate understanding of the risks that they face to provide a sound foundation for planning
• To provide a work programme and to ensure efficient allocation of resources
• To enable local responders to assess the adequacy of their plans

The ten highest risk factors in County Durham and Darlington at present are:

1. Influenza type disease(epidemic) 2. Influenza type disease(pandemic) 3. Major pollution of controlled waters 4. Major land contamination incident 5. Major air quality incident 6. Significant local fluvial flooding (rivers & streams)

7. Localised extremely hazardous flash flooding 8. Major contamination affecting food chain 9. Emergency Services / Industrial Action 10. Electricity Blackout

 

Community Risk Register 2011 (pdf)