CONTINGENCY PLANNING Over the past decades, London has been the target of a number of terrorist attacks and major demonstrations that have culminated in violence. The emergency services and local authorities throughout the capital have worked together to develop a strategy for dealing with these incidents that will allow businesses to return to business as usual as quickly as possible. The plans are documented within the London Emergency Services Liaison Panel manual (LESLP), known as the major incident procedure manual. This can be found at www.leslp.gov.uk


The emergency services and local authorities regularly exercise these plans, to ensure familiarity and that they remain fit for purpose. By agreement, the police co-ordinates the response to any incident to make sure that it receives a safe, effective and speedy resolution. It is important that any contingency planners have access to the LESLP manual and that their plans dovetail with those of the


emergency services, and that – where practical – plans are exercised with and or following discussions with the emergency services.


All City of London organisations of whatever size should establish emergency plans that include a testing and review process, and which establish liaison points with local authorities and the emergency services. At the most basic level, the plan should define who does what, earmark temporary office accommodation and your means for protecting assets for the duration of an alert, as well as outline how communications will be secured for the duration of the incident.


The City of London’s Security and Contingency Planning Group is available to assist businesses in the City with the development and exercising of their contingency plans and to provide services to assist businesses and the residential community in preparing for potentially disruptive incidents. These include:


• Information on how the City of London and emergency services would respond to a major incident.


• Information on current and future events that may have security implications.


• Assistance with the development, documentation and exercising of contingency plans.


• As an independent third party, the group is also available to discuss a company’s plans and arrangements in the strictest confidence.


Should a major incident occur in the Square Mile, information will be placed on www.cityoflondon.gov.uk about the incident and the response of the emergency services.


For more information, email: contingency.planning@cityoflondon.gov.uk


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