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1 Fire and Rescue Service Circular Circular number August 2006 Date issued This circular is This circular is Status For action By 30 November 2006 Relevant to the National Framework This Circular provides information and guidance on the agreed interim solution for the provision of inter-service radio communications at Bronze Level and its subsequent implementation. (CFOA Circular 2005/1090 and 2006/1002 also refers) Emergency Services Radio Communications Interoperability at Bronze Levels Issued by: Antony Bucksey Senior Professional Advisor, Fire & Resilience Programmes Division Addressed to: The Chair of the Fire and Rescue Authority The Chief Executive of the County Council The Clerk to the Fire and Rescue Authority The Clerk to the Combined Fire and Rescue Authority The Commissioner of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority The Chief Fire Officer Please forward to: Head of Operations & Communication Officers Summary Following advice from the Heads of Profession of the primary emergency services, the Ministerial Interoperability Steering group (ISG) agreed that in certain tightly defined circumstances direct bronze to bronze communications at a major incident should be made available. Ministers have asked for the three services to develop such Interoperability as soon as practical. On the direction of the ISG the Operational and Technical Sub Group of the Emergency Services Radio Liaison Group (ESRLG) developed an interim proposal which has received Ministerial approval. This Circular sets out the process for achieving and implementing this proposal. For further information, contact: Antony Bucksey, Senior Professional Advisor Fire & Resilience Directorate Department for Communities and Local Government 9/H9 Eland House Bressenden Place, SW1E 5DU Direct line Fax antony.bucksey@communities.gsi.gov.uk General helpline Website Fire and Rescue Service Circular 1

2 Emergency Services Radio Communications Interoperability at Bronze Levels 1.0 Introduction & Background 1.1 Following advice from the Heads of Profession of the primary emergency services, the Ministerial Interoperability Steering Group (ISG) agreed that in certain tightly defined circumstances direct bronze to bronze communications at a major incident should be made available. 1.2 Ministers have asked for the three services to have such Interoperability as soon as practical. On the direction of the ISG the Operational and Technical Sub-Group of the Emergency Services Radio Liaison Group (ESRLG) developed an interim proposal which has received Ministerial approval. This Circular provides the background information and guidance on the proposed implementation. 1.3 The necessity for Bronze Commanders of Ambulance, the Fire and Rescue Service and Police to be able to communicate life threatening or incident critical information between them is now established. 1.4 It is recognised that now all the primary Emergency Services have signed contracts with Airwave this interim solution is only the first stage of developing and improving Interoperability between the Services using a common platform. 2.0 Summary of Interim Proposal 2.1 To enable an interim solution for Bronze interoperability to be implemented as soon as possible it has been agreed that each Police Force will hold a quantity of Airwave terminals specifically for deployment at incidents, or pre-planned events, where Bronze interoperability is desirable. 2.2 The information circulated to all Police Forces is provided in appendices A C attached. Appendix A: ACPO Intranet message circulated to all Police Chief Officers and Commissioners. (Note: The Spreadsheet Allocation Fleetmap has not been distributed due to the sensitivity of the information.) Appendix B: Police Briefing Note outlining procurement and generic guidelines for the development of operational protocols Appendix C: Template for local agreements 2.3 In summary Airwave hand held terminals will be procured specifically (by Police Forces) for Inter- Service Bronze (operational) Command, and be identified as such. The procurement of Terminals will be funded by the Home Office, Department of Health (DoH), and Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and there is no financial implication for individual fire and rescue services. 2.4 The agreed principal for deployment is that Bronze interoperability radios will be deployed / dispatched to any incident or pre-planned event deemed by the officer in charge / event planner to be an incident / event requiring Bronze radio communication. This definition is not designed to restrict the request by any of the services for Terminals to be distributed. 2.5 Individual Police Forces have been asked to procure Terminals through their existing contracts and instructed to engage with colleagues from Ambulance and fire and rescue services at the most suitable level, in order to discuss and agree the specific SLA S and operational protocols which will be needed. These protocols should be exercised on a regular basis to ensure responders are familiar with the necessary procedures. This will ensure that they are able to respond effectively to an incident requiring bronze interoperability when such an incident arises Fire and Rescue Service Circular 2

3 Emergency Services Radio Communications Interoperability at Bronze Levels 3.0 Action Required 3.1 It is recognised that due to the advance notification provided by the CFOA Circulars 2005/1090 and 2006/1002, that some fire and rescue services have already been in dialogue with their respective Police Forces to develop Operational protocols and procedures. 3.2 All fire and rescue services who have yet to be invited to participate in this activity are now advised to prepare for an approach from their respective Police Force. Antony Bucksey Fire and Resilience Directorate Fire and Rescue Service Circular 3

4 Appendix A: ACPO Intranet Message Security Classification: NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED Disclosable under FOIA 2000: Yes Author/Contact: DAC Ron McPherson Force/Organisation: Metropolitan Police Date Created: 16 August 2006 Telephone: There are attachments to paragraphs: 3(i); 3(ii); 3(iii) This message is only being posted on the ACPO Intranet Association of Chief Police Officers of England, Wales & Northern Ireland 25 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0EX Telephone: Fax: /3401 Information Management Business Area To: Chief Officers and Commissioners Dear Colleagues BRONZE LEVEL INTEROPERABILITY I am writing to you in my capacity as Airwave Senior User to inform you of new arrangements for providing the capability for police, fire and ambulance staff to communicate via Airwave at Bronze command level. For the past two years, Tony Toynton, my predecessor as Airwave Senior User has represented ACPO on a Home Office working group, together with senior representatives from ambulance and fire and rescue services. The group has been following a directive from Ministers that we should agree interoperability arrangements at all levels of command. We have now managed to come to an interim arrangement whereby individual police forces will hold a stock of Airwave radio terminals specifically to share with fire and ambulance colleagues at the scene of incidents should the need arise. When fire and ambulance are using Airwave operationally these interim arrangements should no longer be required, and more comprehensive arrangements can be developed. The cost of these additional terminals will be borne by central government and attached to this letter are a number of briefing documents and protocols which set out how these arrangements may be made to work: inter-service bronze interoperability briefing note. template for local agreement; spreadsheet allocation fleetmap; The attached documents do not seek to prescribe how individual police forces should work with their sister emergency services due to the localised nature of many arrangements. Your Airwave teams should receive these documents separately but if you have any questions on this specific matter, you or team should contact Supt Nicholas Mitchell- Briggs at nicholas.mitchell-briggs@pito.pnn.police.uk.

5 Appendix B: ACPO Briefing Note to Police Forces Background Briefing Note Inter-Service Bronze Interoperability Ambulance-Fire-Police Following the agreement between the three Emergency Service Heads, through the steering Group of ESRLG (Emergency Services Radio Liaison Group), for Inter-Service Bronze Commander communication at Major Incidents, this briefing paper sets out the process for achieving this. The necessity for Bronze Commanders of Ambulance, Fire and Police to be able to communicate life threatening or incident critical information between them is now established. It should be noted that Gold, Silver and Bronze in Scotland, is categorised as Strategic, Tactical and Operational respectively. Ministers are extremely anxious for the three services to have such Interoperability between them and the three Service Chiefs reached agreement through the Steering Group. The Police Service has Airwave as their Communication platform, which is now almost completely rolled out to every Force in England, Scotland and Wales. The Ambulance Service (DOH) have now signed for Airwave as their replacement Communications platform, with Fire (DCLG) choosing Airwave for their Fire link replacement. It has been agreed therefore, that Airwave will be used as the Communication platform for Inter-Service Bronze (operational) Command. Furthermore, as the Police Service has been actively using Airwave for some time and have various structures in place, they are best placed to take the major lead in the provision and deployment of Radios for Inter-Service Bronze (operational) Command. To enable this agreement to take effect as soon as possible it has been agreed that each Police Force will hold a quantity of additional Airwave terminals for deployment at incidents where bronze interoperability is desirable and for these terminals to be issued to Ambulance and Fire Service personnel for the duration of the incident. The ability of Bronze (operational) Commanders from the three services to be able to communicate with each other at the scene of incidents will enhance not just the safety of all officers across the services whilst dealing with the incident, but also as a consequence, the safety of the Public as a whole.

6 Appendix B: ACPO Briefing Note to Police Forces It is not intended that this protocol will replace same service communication between Bronze (operational) Commanders and their respective Command Structures, or their own units. This protocol is designed simply to ensure that life threatening or incident critical information which needs to be passed between Commanders of the three Services is achieved without delay. It is recognised that this is the first stage only of Interoperability between the Services using Airwave, and that when all three are using Airwave operationally, more comprehensive agreements will be reached. Local Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are now required between each Force and their Ambulance and Fire colleagues to achieve this first stage. Terminals will be procured specifically for use by Inter-Service Bronze (operational) Command, and will be identified as such. Terminals will have specific Talk-Groups fleet mapped into them. This will ensure that the National Inter-Service Interoperability Talk Groups are fully utilised, and that any fleet mapping and training demands on individual Forces will be kept to a minimum. However, under the new nationally mandated and PMA Talk Groups agreement, the Fleet Map has included the additional Multi-Agency Talk Groups to provide a level of future proofing. There must be NO OTHER Talk Groups Fleet Mapped into these Terminals, other than those specified on the attached Fleet Map spreadsheet. Funding Forces will not have to make financial provision for the procurement of Terminals. This will be covered by budget secured through Home Office, DOH, and DCLG. But they will be required to purchase the terminals through their normal procurement route and then claim the money back from PITO who will hold the central budget. Forces will be given a maximum budget from which to procure Terminals, Charging units, extended warranty, (for replacements, software upgrades etc), registration of ISSIs, and fleet mapping costs. The spreadsheet attached provides the budget allocation to individual Forces. You will see from the attached spreadsheet that there is a minimum requirement for procurement of Terminals by Forces. Suppliers have indicated that they are prepared to offer a standard price against the specification required, and this is indicated on the spreadsheet. Forces should clearly identify on their order that the Terminals are for Bronze Interoperability. If Forces are able to improve on the prices quoted through their own procurement processes, then this would be welcomed. Procurement Forces should procure Terminals through their normal procurement processes, and pay their suppliers. A copy of the invoice should then be sent to PITO together with copy of

7 Appendix B: ACPO Briefing Note to Police Forces the SLA agreement. The invoice and SLA will be checked by the UAC support office, and authorisation then given to PITO for payment It is recognised that the Police Service is asked to bear the additional costs of Network time charges, and other costs associated with Terminal ownership and maintenance for this interim period, including storage, additional power points for chargers etc. It is not expected that Network charges will be an issue. Bronze (operational) Terminals will not have the same use as normal Police issue ones. Protocol for Using Airwave Inter-Service Terminals The definition of an incident requiring the dispatch and distribution at scene to Bronze (operational) Commanders of the three services, is provided on the attached template. Such definition is not designed to restrict the request by any of the services for Terminals to be distributed. However, neither is it the expectation that Terminals will only be used on the arrival of Police Major Incident vehicles, or that Terminals will only be stored on such vehicles. In that event, the likelihood of Terminals being used in the manner now required will be seriously reduced. The essence of regular and consistent use of Bronze (operational) Interoperability will help to develop future and more comprehensive policies. The operational protocols therefore to be developed by Forces with their respective Ambulance and Fire colleagues needs to ensure that their storage, ready state, and means of deployment to and at scene, are sufficiently flexible. The urgent and immediate requirement on every Police Force now, is to engage with colleagues from Ambulance and Fire at the most suitable level, in order to discuss and agree the specific SLAs which will be needed. Such SLAs will vary from Force to Force, depending on any current agreements already in place, but in all cases will need to consider Civil Contingency Act, CBRN responsibilities etc. It should be appreciated that this protocol, and the budget provided by Home Office, DOH and DCLG is for the three Emergency Services at Bronze (operational) level to communicate incident critical and life threatening information between them. It is fully understood, that there will be occasions at various serious and major incidents where other crucial agencies will be assisting the main Emergency Services. It is felt that if the Bronze Commanders are in agreement, that nothing should prevent the provision of a Terminal to another Bronze Commander of any such agency, if such action will provide added benefit to the running of that incident, enhance communication, and increase general public safety. The Police however have the ultimate responsibility for the storage, management, security, and return of Terminals, and therefore robust procedures must be in place to ensure that such security and codes of connection rules are not compromised. As stated, it is accepted that the burden of storage and maintenance of the Terminals in a ready state falls to the Police Service, but even Metropolitan Forces will not have such

8 Appendix B: ACPO Briefing Note to Police Forces significant numbers as to make it unmanageable. In the wider interests of achieving a reasonably quick solution for the next three years, ACPO/ACPOS together with Ambulance and Fire Chiefs have endorsed these proposals. PITO has offered its support through the Interoperability Manager and Fleet Mapping Manager should Forces require additional advice. However, the first line of support should be directed to the UAC support office. All these details are given below. Thank you Superintendent Nick Mitchell-Briggs Police User Assurance Co-Ordinator On behalf of ACPO/ACPOS 15 th August 2006 Contact Points : Nick Mitchell-Briggs ACPO/S Airwave User Assurance Co-Ordinator Nicholas.mitchell-briggs@pito.pnn.police.uk Jim Flooks UAC Support Office James.flooks@pito.pnn.police.uk Geoff Lowe PITO Interoperability Manager Geoff.lowe@PITO.pnn.police.uk Trevor Winterbottom PITO Feet Map Manager Trevor.winterbottom@pito.pnn.police.uk

9 Appendix C: Template for local Agreement Providing Bronze Level Communications Interoperability at Major Incidents The following common principles for deployment have been agreed: Bronze interoperability radios will be deployed/dispatched to any incident or pre-planned event deemed by the officer in charge/event planner as an incident/event requiring Bronze radio communication TMO will be the default operational mode with DMO used as a back-up where there is no coverage available or there are network problems. The National Inter-Service Interoperability Talk Groups will be the primary ones to be used The talk-groups should be monitored by the Police on their CCI ports and recorded, during the course of any Bronze (operational) Interoperability incident. It is not anticipated that the groups will be monitored by any other service. The talk-groups should only be used for Bronze interoperability communications for health and safety and risk critical information. They are not for same service communication. The Terminals will not (at least initially) be enabled for point to point or telephony. The emergency button should be enabled. The Terminals are not required to be intrinsically safe. Radios will be delivered to the incidents complete with all necessary accessories, fully charged, programmed and provisioned. Forces should work with their local Ambulance and Fire Services to develop an agreement for how the equipment will be deployed. A framework for the agreement is given below. Please provide full contact details of the person in each of the services responsible for drawing up the SLA, and/or the person who will be responsible for its operational management and maintenance.

10 Appendix C: Template for local Agreement Where will you store the Terminals? What in-force provision will be made for their constant state of readiness? What level of authority will there be authorizing their dispatch and deployment to scene? Will you consider some of the Terminals being available permanently on vehicles such as ARVs? Will some of the Terminals be stored in different parts of your Force area? Provide a summary of the local tri-partite agreement for the deployment of Bronze interoperability Terminals including their return, records kept procedure for dealing with lost Terminals from the other services etc. In considering any SLA you should revisit any local contingency plans and address any relevant communication issues. You should also identify the call signs and radio procedures which will be used. Full cognizance should be taken of any existing agreements you may have with the other services for dealing with Civil Contingencies act, CBRN etc.

11 Appendix C: Template for local Agreement Provide an outline of any local training plan agreed between the three services. You should consider any initial training, and its delivery, and any on-going training etc. What is your target go live date? IN ANY EVENT THIS SHOULD BE ACHIEVED BY END OF NOVEMBER 2006 Please also refer to the briefing note attached. Further details of process and procurement are attached. It would be helpful if those persons nominated by their Force s to lead on Bronze (operational) interoperability, contacted the UAC Support Office below, in order that any further information can be sent directly. UAC Support Office: Chief Inspector James Flooks james.flooks@pito.pnn.police.uk August 2006