Glossary Term / Acronym Definition Source Accident Unplanned, unexpected, unintended and undesirable happening which results in or has the potential for injury, harm, ill-health or damage ACP Access Control Point. Controlled point through which essential nonemergency service personnel may gain access through the outer cordon AIC Ambulance Incident Commander. Officer of the ambulance service with overall responsibility for the work of that service at the scene of an emergency Ambulance Air Ambulance Aircraft (usually a helicopter) used primarily to transport medical or paramedical staff to the site of an incident or emergency and casualties to specialist trauma centres and/or designated hospitals Airwave The common, secure digital radio system used by the emergency services and others in the resilience and security community. The system is based on the TETRA standards set APP Authorised Professional Practice (College of Policing) - repository for national police policies and procedures Police Bronze The tier of command and control within a single agency (below gold level and silver level) at which the management of hands-on work is undertaken at the incident site(s) or associated areas
Capability A demonstrable ability to respond to and recover from a particular threat or hazard Catastrophic Emergency An emergency which has an exceptionally high and potentially widespread impact and requires immediate central government direction and support Category 1 responder A person or body listed in Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Civil Act. These bodies are likely to be at the core of the response to most emergencies. As such, they are subject to the full range of civil protection duties in the Act Category 2 responder A person or body listed in Part 3 of Schedule 1 to the Civil Act. These are co-operating responders who are less likely to be involved in the heart of multi-agency planning work, but will be heavily involved in preparing for incidents affecting their sectors. The Act requires them to co-operate and share information with other Category 1 and 2 responders CBA Cost Benefit Analysis. Financial technique that measures the cost of implementing a particular solution and compares it with the benefit delivered by that solution CBRNE Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Explosives. A term used to describe Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive materials. CBRNE terrorism is the actual or threatened dispersal of CBRN material (either on their own or in combination with each other or with explosives), with deliberate criminal, malicious or murderous intent CCA Act of 2004 which established a single framework for Civil Protection in the United Kingdom. Part 1 of the Act
establishes a clear set of roles and responsibilities for Local Responders; Part 2 of the Act establishes emergency powers Civil Risks to civilian health, safety, and property from emergencies as defined in the Civil Act (2004) Cabinet Office Civil protection Organisation and measures, under governmental or other authority, aimed at preventing, abating or otherwise countering the effects of emergencies for the protection of the civilian population and property CNI Critical National Infrastructure. A subset of critical infrastructure, and describes those elements of critical infrastructure which have been identified by as being of strategic national importance to essential service delivery. The loss or compromise of these assets would have a severe, widespread effect, impacting on a national scale CO Cabinet Office. Department of the United Kingdom responsible for supporting the Prime Minister and Cabinet Co-ordination The integration of multi-agency efforts and available capabilities, which may be interdependent, in order to achieve defined objectives COBR Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms. UK 's dedicated crisis management facilities, which are activated in the event of an emergency requiring support and co-ordination at the national strategic level Command The exercise of vested authority, that is associated with a role or rank within an organisation, to give direction in order to achieve defined objectives Commander Personnel who, by function or rank, are
charged with ensuring the readiness of their teams, forces or organisations to discharge their stated duties and obligations Control The application of authority, combined with the capability to manage resources, in order to achieve defined objectives Controlled Area Area contained by an outer cordon CoP College of Policing - Formerly NPIA Professional body for policing Home Office Critical Incident Incident in which the police response is likely to have a significant impact on the confidence of the victim, his/her family and/or the community Home Office Critical Infrastructure Critical infrastructure is therefore a broad term used to describe Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) and other infrastructure of national significance, as well as infrastructure and assets of local significance Disaster Emergency (usually but not exclusively of natural causes) causing, or threatening to cause, widespread and serious disruption to community life through death, injury, and/or damage to property and/or the environment DRA Dynamic Risk Assessment. Continuing assessment appraisal, made during an incident or emergency, of the hazards involved in, and the impact of, the response Emergency An event or situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare in a place in the UK, the environment of a place in the UK, or the security of the UK or of a place in the UK
Emergency Plan A document or collection of documents that sets out the overall framework for the initiation, management, co-ordination and control of personnel and assets to reduce, control or mitigate the effects of an emergency FBP Forward Briefing Point. Site with good views over the area affected by an incident, at which media briefings are conducted FCP Forward Control Point / Forward Command Post. A location near the scene, where the response (by the emergency services) to the scene of an emergency/major incident, is managed. Any service's command and control facility nearest the scene of the incident, responsible for immediate direction, deployment and security. This might be either an Operational / Bronze or Tactical / Silver facility depending on the circumstances of the incident FF Firefighter Fire FIM Force Incident Manager. Tactical role within a Police service when responding to a major or critical incident Police Firelink Tetra-based digital radio communication system used by the fire and rescue services. Provides interoperability between individual fire and rescue services' radio capabilities, as well as interoperability with other blue light services Fire First responder The first person(s) to arrive at the scene of an incident from the emergency services FRS Abbreviation for a Fire & Rescue Service Fire
GOLD GPS HART The strategic level of command and control (above Silver level and Bronze level) at which policy, strategy and the overall response framework are established and managed for individual responder agencies. Note: the Strategic Co-ordinating Group, the multi-agency strategic co-ordinating body, may colloquially be referred to as the Gold Group or Gold Command, but not simply as Gold Global Positioning Systems Hazardous Area Response Team. Specially recruited and trained personnel who provide the ambulance response to major incidents involving hazardous materials, or which present hazardous environments, that have occurred as a result of an accident or have been caused deliberately Ambulance HO Home Office. The Home Office is the lead government department for immigration and passports, drugs policy, counter-terrorism and policing HSE Health & Safety Executive. The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and the HSE are responsible for the regulation of almost all the risks to health and safety arising from work activity in Great Britain IC Incident Commander. The nominated emergency services officer with overall responsibility for tactics and resource management at the tactical level. Note: usually specific to each service. At multi-agency incidents, there may be an incident commander for each service, and to avoid confusion it would be beneficial if the commanders referred to themselves as the silver commander for their service Inner cordon Cordon established to secure the immediate scene and provide a measure of protection for personnel working within the area
Interoperability The extent to which organisations can work together coherently as a matter of routine JESIP JDM Joint Decision Model. The JDM enables efficient and effective joint working by the emergency services and helps to determine their priorities for action. The JDM achieves this through 'stages' that establish a shared situational awareness and a joint assessment of risk JESIP JESIP Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Programme. Two year programme aiming to improve the way in which the three blue light services work together at major and complex incidents Joint Learning The identification of lessons from exercises or operations that are relevant to joint working and the process of effecting and embedding change in organisations and behaviours in response to those lessons Joint Working A number of organisations working together on a course, or courses of action, to achieve agreed emergency response objectives Level of emergency Cabinet Office (2010) Central Arrangements for Responding to an Emergency defines three levels of emergency of national significance. These are, in descending order of magnitude, catastrophic emergency (Level 3); serious emergency (Level 2); significant emergency (Level 1). Below the national level there is a further category, local emergency, the response to which is conducted by local responders, where necessary in conjunction with local government. Note: in the case of a catastrophic or serious emergency, central government provides direction; in a significant emergency the central government provides support and
nominates a lead government department LRF Local Resilience Forum Process for bringing together all the category 1 and 2 responders within a police force area for the purpose of facilitating co-operation in fulfilment of their duties under the Civil Act MAAUG Multi Agency Airwave User Group MAGIC Multi Agency Joint Incident Command Programme. Three day multi agency training course for gold commanders Major Incident Event or situation requiring a response under one or more of the emergency services major incident plans METHANE Used to facilitate scene management. Major emergency. Exact location. Type of incident. Hazards Access. Number of casualties. Emergency services JESIP MPS Metropolitan Police Service NRR National Risk Register. A publically available statement of the assessment of the likelihood and potential impact of a range of different risks that might directly affect the UK Outer cordon Cordon established around the vicinity of an incident, and encompassing the inner cordon, to control access to a wider area around the scene, to allow the emergency services and other agencies to work unhindered and in privacy PSNI Police Service for Northern Ireland Police Rapid Onset Emergency An emergency which develops quickly and usually with immediate effects,
thereby limiting the time available to consider response options Rising tide emergency RTC RvP Event or a situation that develops into an emergency or major incident over a period of days, weeks or even months (such as health pandemic, flooding, industrial action), the final impact of which may not be apparent early on (in contrast to rapid onset emergency) Road Traffic Collision Rendezvous Point. Point to which all resources arriving at the outer cordon are directed for logging, briefing, equipment issue and deployment Civil SA Situational Awareness. The state of individual and/or collective knowledge relating to past and current events, their implications and potential future developments. Note: the process of building situational awareness involves perception, comprehension, evaluation and future projection; achieving a common position within groups necessitates transparency around, for example, the concepts, assumptions, language and frameworks used to build individual situational awareness SADCHALETS Police acronym used when dealing with major incidents. Survey. Assess. Disseminate. Casualties. Hazards. Access. Location. Emergency services. Type. Start logging Police SAR Search and Rescue. Use of specialised personnel and equipment to locate persons in distress or in danger and remove them from a place of actual or potential danger to a place of relative safety SCG Strategic Coordinating Group. In Scotland Strategic Co-ordinating Groups are the principal local forum for multi-agency cooperation in civil protection. The groups have a role in both preparation and response to
emergencies Silver The tactical tier of command and control within a single agency (below Gold level and above Bronze level) at which the response to an emergency is managed Note: multi-agency coordination at the tactical level is undertaken by the Tactical Coordinating Group Silver Command Individual with responsibility of the incident at Silver (tactical) tier SIO Senior Investigating Office. Detective officer appointed to assume responsibility for all aspects of a police investigation SPOC Single Point of Contact Tactical Level (below strategic level and above operational level) at which the response to an emergency is managed. The terms tactical and Silver are frequently used interchangeably for single agency operations. Tactical and operational are inverted in military usage Talkgroups Airwave communications channels TCG Tactical Coordinating Group. A multiagency group of tactical commanders that meets to determine, co-ordinate and deliver the tactical response to an emergency. Note: the TCG may also be known as the Silver Group TETRA TErrestrial Trunked Radio (standard of ETSI) Common platform to facilitate interoperability for voice communication and some data exchange. Terrestrial Trunked RAdio is the accepted digital radio standards for critical voice and narrowband data. The UK's Airwave radio system is based on
the TETRA standards managed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) USAR Urban Search & Rescue Fire