Civil Contingencies Secretariat


The Civil Contingencies Secretariat, created in July 2001, is the executive department of the British Cabinet Office responsible for emergency planning in the UK. The role of the secretariat is to ensure the United Kingdom's resilience against disruptive challenge, and to do this by working with others to anticipate, assess, prevent, prepare, respond and recover. Until its creation in 2001, emergency planning in Britain was the responsibility of the Home Office. The CCS also supports the Civil Contingencies Committee, also known as COBR.

Formation

When compared to other countries, the UK is not particularly prone to disasters, but in the aftermath of the Y2K bug scare, the fuel protests of 2000, flooding in autumn 2000, and the foot and mouth epidemic of 2001 the UK government felt that the existing emergency management policies and structures were inadequate to deal with natural or man-made disasters, and formed the Civil Contingencies Secretariat in July 2001, located in the Cabinet Office. Soon after the 9/11 attacks the remit of the CCS was expanded to include mitigating the consequences of a large scale terrorist attack.

Remit and reporting

In 2002 David Blunkett, then Home Secretary, stated, in a written reply to a parliamentary question:
He went on to state:
The Civil Contingencies Committee, often informally referred to as COBRA from the name of the room used, is a forum for ministers and senior officials to discuss and manage serious and catastrophic emergencies.

Structure

The secretariat is led by a director and initially comprised five divisions dealing with:
;Assessment: assessing known risks and scanning for future potential risks
;Capability Management: working with departments facing potential disruption, and advising on how to prevent or manage crisis
;Communication and Learning: including the News Co-ordination Centre in the Cabinet Office and the Emergency Planning College
;National Resilience Framework: developing partnerships between governmental agencies, voluntary agencies, local communities and private sector groups
;Programme Co-ordination: providing secretariat support for the Civil Contingencies Committee
In 2012 the CCS still had five sections, with a slightly different emphasis:
Until 2001 the Home Office carried out emergency preparedness planning through its Emergency Planning Division, which in turn replaced the Home Defence and Emergency Services Division. From 1935 to 1971 a separate department, called the Civil Defence Department, existed.

Documents issued

The CCS has produced the following documents: