Community Information on Risks in Sussex
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
SUSSEX RESILIENCE FORUM COMMUNITY INFORMATION ON RISKS IN SUSSEX COMMUNITY INFORMATION ON RISKS IN SUSSEX Emergency preparedness and management of the main risks in the County INTRODUCTION 2 THE SUSSEX PROFILE 5 TOP RISKS 9 Pandemic Flu 10 South Coast Flooding 12 Inland Flooding 14 Severe Weather 16 Fuel Shortages 19 Loss of Critical Infrastructure 20 Animal Disease 23 Coastal Pollution 25 Industrial Accidents 26 Transport Accidents 28 SUSSEX EMERGENCY PROFILE 31 PREPAREDNESS 33 WANT TO KNOW MORE? 41 page 1 Introduction The Community Risk Register (CRR) provides information on the biggest emergencies that could happen to Sussex, together with an assessment of how likely they are to happen and the impacts if they do. This includes the impacts to people, their houses, the environment and local businesses PURPOSE The Forum covers the Sussex Police force area, and includes This document is designed to the emergency services, local inform people about the risks authorities, the Environment that could occur where they live, Agency and health agencies so they can think about what along with voluntary and private they can do to be better prepared agencies. in their homes, communities and businesses. Under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) every part of the Looking at all of the risks together United Kingdom is required to can also help emergency establish a resilience forum. services, local authorities and other organizations plan their DEVELOPING THE joint response. The Community CAPABILITY AND Risk Register (CRR) aims to help CAPACITY TO RESPOND TO these agencies make decisions EMERGENCIES on emergency planning work, and will help them develop better During emergencies we work relationships whilst considering together to focus on the needs of their capabilities and capacity. victims, vulnerable people and responders. The partnership Any gaps identified can then has developed a range of be dealt with appropriately, capabilities, which we regularly depending on the priority of the test and exercise, necessary risk. The overall aim of this is to to help us manage most identify the generic capabilities, emergencies. They include: which are required in response to many of the risks, so we can • Evacuation and shelter develop a strong capacity to • Search and rescue respond to any incident. • Dealing with mass casualties THE SRF - WHO WE ARE • Dealing with excess The Sussex Resilience Forum deaths (SRF) is a partnership, made up • Site clearance of all the organisations needed • Humanitarian assistance. to prepare for and respond to any major emergency within East and West Sussex and Brighton & Hove. page 2 WHAT WE DO WHAT IS THE COMMUNITY RISK REGISTER? The Strategic Aim of Sussex Resilience Forum is: The Sussex Resilience Forum legally has to produce a Community Risk Register (CRR) to look “To ensure that there is an appropriate level of at the likelihood and impact of a range of hazards. preparedness to enable an effective multi-agency response to emergencies which may have a Nationally, every resilience forum uses its own significant impact on the communities of Sussex.” professional judgement along with guidance from the national version of this document (National Risk All services and organisations work together to Register), to put together its CRR. The national ensure that the best possible preparations and register is produced by the Government using plans are in place for emergencies. These are historical and scientific data, and the professional regularly tested and updated so that agencies can judgements of experts to analyse the risks to the respond immediately and effectively to any threat. UK as a whole. All responders work to a set of common The Sussex CRR helps identify emerging issues objectives, which will help to: and also situations where a risk may be increasing • save lives or decreasing in our county. It helps highlight • prevent the disaster getting worse any gaps in an organisation’s ability to respond to an emergency and indicates what response • relieve suffering is required. If a risk is included in the CRR, it • restore normality as soon as possible doesn’t mean it will happen. It means we know • protect property it is a possibility, and organisations have made • facilitate a criminal investigation and arrangements to reduce its impact. judicial process if necessary. AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE HIGH CONSEQUENCE RISKS FACING THE UNITED KINGDOM SOURCE: NATIONAL RISK REGISTER (2010) Non-Pandemic Human Disease Pandemic Human Inland Flooding Disease Coastal Flooding Major Industrial Accidents Attacks on Crowded Places Major Transport Attacks on Accidents Transport Cyber Attacks: Non-conventional Relative Impact Infrastructure Attacks Severe Weather Attacks on Infrastructure Animal Disease Cyber Attacks: Data Confidentiality Relative Likelihood page 3 SCOPE OF THE CRR The CRR does not assess every single risk. It assesses the risks that are most likely to happen and the impact these would have across the county. The risk assessments included in the register only cover non-malicious events (i.e. hazards) rather than threats (i.e. terrorist incidents). Specific information about threats is not detailed in a CRR. The CRR focuses on serious emergencies. An emergency is defined as: RISK IDENTIFICATION • an event or situation which threatens Some risks are more obvious than others. There serious damage to human welfare in a are several main categories: natural events, human place in the United Kingdom diseases, animal diseases, major accidents and • an event or situation which threatens malicious attacks. serious damage to the environment of a place in the United Kingdom RISK ANALYSIS • war or terrorism which threatens serious Each entry in the CRR has a lead organisation damage to the security of the United responsible for co-ordinating the risk assessment. Kingdom. This looks at the likelihood and the impact: Source: Civil Contingencies Act (2004) • Likelihood is the probability of an incident related to a hazard or threat, happening over RISK MANAGEMENT PROCESS the next 5 years. • Impact is a measure of the severity of the The CRR is put together through a risk potential harm caused by the hazard or threat, management process. This process follows a looking at the impacts on health, the economy, cycle, and is carried out by the SRF CRR Group the environment and society. – a group of people from all organisations in the Sussex Resilience Forum. RISK EVALUATION RISK CONTEXT After the lead organisation has completed the risk assessment, it has to be agreed by the CRR RISK Group before being included in the CRR. Each IDENTIFICATION risk is then displayed on a graph to show the risks MONITOR relative to each other. RISK ANALYSIS AND REVIEW RISK TREATMENT RISK EVALUATION A risk treatment plan is agreed by the LRF to prioritise ways of reducing risks, with the ultimate RISK TREATMENT aim of reducing them to an acceptable level as far as possible. RISK CONTEXT MONITORING AND REVIEW The Sussex CRR puts the national risks in a local context, by looking at things like economic, All risks in the CRR are reviewed continually and geographic and demographic factors, whether the changes made as required. risk has happened before and what is in place to control it. Even within the county, a risk can have a The CRR has a review date showing when the different impact; e.g coastal flooding. annual comprehensive review is carried out. page 4 THE SUSSEX PROFILE Gatwick East Grinstead Crawley Forest Row Horsham Wadhurst Crowborough Haywards Heath Midhurst Petworth Heathfield Rye Burgess Hill Uckfield Storrington Battle Shoreham- Arundel Lewes Hailsham Hastings Chichester by-Sea Hove Littlehampton Bexhill-on-Sea Worthing Brighton Bognor Regis Eastbourne page 5 The Sussex Profile Some risks in Sussex will be different compared to other parts of the Country. To understand why some risks are more significant in Sussex, we need to look at the profile of the area including social, economic and geographical factors. These factors also influence how we can prepare for and manage emergencies in the county. SOCIAL HEALTH Between 1991 and 2001 the Nearly two thirds of the population of the whole of residents of Sussex Sussex increased by about considered their health to be 5%, slightly above the good. national rate. Several pockets around the This is slightly lower than the county such as Crawley and figures for England & Wales Horsham in the West and but we have a high percentage Eastbourne in the East report of people reporting limiting rises well above the national long-term illness particularly in rate. Brighton. Whilst in the past many people Just under one in ten people moved to Sussex to retire, it now provide unpaid health care has a very healthy birth rate. to family members, friends, Sussex has seen an increase in neighbours or others because the minority ethnic population. of long-term physical or mental Although much less ethnically health, disability, or problems diverse than either the region or related to old age. nationally, Sussex has become more diverse since 2001 and Around 1% of the population at a faster rate. There is a live in residential care or nursing range of minority ethnic groups homes. represented within the county, and for that reason, identifying specific needs can be difficult. page 6 ENVIRONMENT The physical geography of Sussex relies heavily The beaches along the coast vary from sandy to on its lying on the southern part of the Wealden shingle: that factor, together with the mild climate anticline. The major features of that are the high of the coast, sheltered by the hills from north lands which cross the county in a west to east and east winds, has resulted in the growth of direction: the Weald itself, and the South Downs. numerous resort towns, such as Hastings, Bexhill, The former consists of clays and sands; the latter Eastbourne, Seaford, Brighton, Shoreham-by- chalk.