Incident Management Plan: Major incidents - UK government response

If an incident is serious enough to threaten a wide and/or prolonged impact requiring central government co-ordination and support from several departments and agencies the central government response would be co-ordinated from the Cabinet Office under the leadership of a Lead Government Department (LGD). Central government will manage this response in accordance with the Central Government Concept of Operations (CONOPs), which sets out arrangements for responding to and recovering from emergencies requiring co-ordinated central government action. FSA incident response arrangements will operate within the central government emergency response structure.

The Cabinet Office, in consultation with No.10 and the LGD, will decide whether an emergency response should be co-ordinated by central government. The SIOG with input from the IMCG, decide when during an incident to notify the Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS).

Depending on the severity of an event discussions will take place between the LGD, the Cabinet Office and No.10 regarding which of the central government emergency response arrangements are required, which may result in an activation of COBR. (for further information see ANNEX B). 

Activation of the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBR) facilitates decision making and allows the rapid execution of the co-ordinated central government response. Where COBR (Ministerial) is activated for a food and/or feed-related incident and the FSA is considered the LGD, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for public health will normally represent the FSA at Ministerial level COBR meetings.

The FSA Chief Executive Officer or designated deputy will brief the Minister in advance of the meeting. The FSA may receive an invitation to attend COBR Ministerial meetings and the FSA Chair and FSA Chief Executive Officer will decide who will attend.  

Similar FSA representation to those carrying out Ministerial COBR briefing could be expected at COBR (Officials) meetings. Invitations for the FSA to attend COBR (Ministerial or Officials) will be circulated by CCS. 

Where FSA is considered the LGD for an incident affecting Wales or Northern Ireland, the FSA Director with responsibility for Wales/Northern Ireland may attend the relevant COBR equivalent. There may be also occasions where another department is lead but the FSA presence at COBR is required to support the cross-government response.

Further detail on central government emergency response arrangements is set out in ANNEX B – UK Government Response: description of emergency response arrangements and how they apply. The Annex provides information on COBR, the Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGoRR); the Emergency Co-ordination Centre Wales (ECCW), the Civil Contingencies Group Northern Ireland (CCGNI),the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), the Common Recognised Information Picture (CRIP); the LGD; the Scientific and Technical Advisory Cells (STACs) and the News Co- ordination Centre (NCC). 

Figure 3: FSA command and control interface with national emergency structures

How the FSA command and control structure links to central government response is shown in the above diagram (Figure 3), which sets out the emergency response mechanisms across central government in relation to the FSA’s incident response at strategic, tactical and operational levels.