Maintained in accordance with Regulation 15(1) of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (Contingency Planning) Regulations 2005
Introduction and Background
The main purpose of the Community Risk Register is to assess the risks to the community within West Yorkshire, in order to help the West Yorkshire Resilience Forum address risk and strengthen our capabilities. It allows the West Yorkshire Resilience Forum to focus multi agency emergency planning resources on a rational basis of priority and need. This work contributes to reducing the likelihood of a given risk, reducing our vulnerability to it and reducing the impact of it should it materialise.
The fact that a risk is included in the register does not mean that any particular incident will happen. Nevertheless, the possibility, however remote, has been recognised and the relevant agencies have arrangements in place to mitigate the effects of such incidents.
The Community Risk Register is a legal requirement under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. Section 2, Subsection 1, of the Act places a duty on Category 1 Responders 'from time to time assess the risk of an emergency occurring', and 'from time to time assess the risk of an emergency making it necessary or expedient for the person or body to perform any of its functions'.
The Community Risk Register will also help to identify emerging issues and those where the risk is increasing or decreasing. It can assist in identifying gaps in organisations' ability to respond to emergencies and inform the planning process in respect of the scale of response that may be required.
The Community Risk Register does not cover all eventualities. There is no need to assess every single risk, particularly those with a very low likelihood of occurrence. Neither is there a need to individually assess all risks on a neighbourhood by neighbourhood basis. Many risks are assessed on their impact across the entire West Yorkshire area. The threshold for the Community Risk Register is those incidents which will potentially impact on one or more Category 1 Responders across West Yorkshire. Therefore, risks which are routine business for Category 1 Responders are not included in the Community Risk Register, only those events which constitute major incidents.
The completion of the Community Risk Register is a statutory duty for all Category 1 Responders, therefore, this responsibility is a collective one. All Category 1 Responders are legally required to co-operate in maintaining this register.
Please note that threats such as terrorism are assessed on a national basis and these national assessments are used to inform localised work.
Maintained in accordance with Regulation 15(1) of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (Contingency Planning) Regulations 2005
Government Guidance
The Government has published guidance on Part 1 of the Civil Contingencies Act entitled ‘Emergency Preparedness’. Chapter 4 of this Guidance explains the risk assessment duty.
The Guidance states that the risk assessment process should be a two-way flow, in that the West Yorkshire risk assessment should inform the Regional and National assessments and vice versa.
The Six Step Process
The Guidance recommends a six-step process in compiling the Community Risk Register. Comprehensive guidance is available at Chapter 4 and Annex 4a of the document ‘Emergency Preparedness’.
- Step 1: Contextualisation
- Step 2: Hazard review and allocation for assessment
- Step 3: Risk analysis
- Step 4: Risk evaluation
- Step 5: Risk treatment
- Step 6: Monitoring and Review
Contextualisation
The first stage is to define the scope of the risk management activity required in West Yorkshire. This includes a demographic, economic and geographic description of the area.
Hazard Review and Allocation for Assessment
The hazards which might give rise to an emergency are provisionally identified and described using Government guidance. The outcome descriptions as shown in the risk register are agreed nationally and will apply to Community Risk Registers throughout the Country. They are a general description of a type of incident and its effects on which the assessment is based. Not all of the national outcome descriptions apply to West Yorkshire (e.g. coastal pollution) and these have, therefore, been omitted.
The Risk Assessment Working Group provisionally allocated hazards and threats to a Lead Assessor agency. Lead Assessors are responsible for producing risk assessments in consultation with other Category 1 and 2 Responders and other interested parties.
Risk Analysis
The Lead Assessor considers the likelihood of the hazard or threat occurring within the next five years, taking into account the scale and outcome description.
A generic framework, provided in the Government Guidance, is used as the basis for assessing the potential impact of the hazard or threat.
In respect of a “malicious threat”, there is no requirement to assess likelihood or impact, as a statement is provided by Central Government.
The Risk Assessment only covers non-malicious events (i.e. hazards) rather than threats (i.e. terrorist incidents). This does not mean that the West Yorkshire Resilience Forum is not considering these threats within its risk assessment work, but given the sensitivity of the information supporting these risk assessments, specific details will not be made available.
Risk Evaluation
Once the Lead Assessor has completed the assessment and this has been agreed by the Risk Assessment Working Group, the information is consolidated in the risk assessment framework. Information which is considered sensitive is excluded from this framework.
In addition, each risk is plotted on a Risk Matrix to visually portray the risk rating, which is defined in the Government Guidance.
Risk Treatment
The Community Risk Register is not an end in itself, but serves as a means for ensuring a commonly agreed starting point for responders in their approach to Integrated Emergency Management. The West
Yorkshire Resilience Forum has a duty to evaluate and prioritise risk reduction measures according to the size of the risk and gaps in the capability required to respond to this risk. The risk treatment plan is agreed by the West Yorkshire Resilience Forum.
Monitoring and Review
The Guidance states that risks should be reviewed regularly, and monitored continuously. Where information suggests a potential change, this will be incorporated into a revised Risk Assessment. The review date shown in the risk register is the date on which there will be a comprehensive review of all risks. The review of the Community Risk Register will be a standing item on the agenda of the West Yorkshire Resilience Forum.
The 2010/11 Annual Review
The 2010/2011 annual review of the Community Risk Register has been undertaken. This year a full review was undertaken of all Individual Risk Assessments that form the basis for the Community Risk Register.
This review looked in detail at:
- impact assessments; how a risk might impact upon our health, society, the economy and the environment of an area using the criteria attached on this page.
- learning from international, national or local incidents or emergencies and capturing this within the risk assessment.
- horizon scanning for new risks; this included everything from threat related work to Olympic resilience and even space weather.
- peer review and challenge to the Individual Risk Assessments by professional partners looking at both impact and likelihood.
- consideration of national guidance on risk
The review resulted in 2 risks being added that it was felt did not previously apply to West Yorkshire (HL1, H12) on a precautionary principle. Two risks increased from a Low to Medium (H7 and H44.1). Seven risks decreased from a High to Medium (H1, H4, HL28, H8, HL2, HL12, H26), one risk decreased from a High to Low (H24), and one risk decreased from a Medium to Low (H26). The changes were largely due to a more mature and well developed understanding of the risks faced in West Yorkshire as part of the review.
Overall, the West Yorkshire Community Risk Register now contains 2 Very High risks, 16 High risks, 31 Medium risks, and 10 Low risks. In addition to this there are 4 generic threats identified and 16 risks that have been identified but do not apply to West Yorkshire. Work is ongoing to consider non-West Yorkshire risks that may result in an impact on the area, such as East coast flooding that may require us to provide welfare support to evacuees.
The details of relevant risks/threats can be found in the West Yorkshire Community Risk Register.
Publication
There is a legal requirement to publish the Community Risk Register. In order to comply with our legal requirement relevant documents of the Community Risk Register are published below, please click on the corresponding links to open the documents. (PDF files)
The Community Risk Register comprises the following sections:
Glossary of Terms
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West Yorkshire Resilience Forum
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Chaired by the West Yorkshire Police and comprises senior representatives from key organisations including the emergency services, local authorities, Environment Agency, Regional Government and the military.
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Risk Assessment Working Group
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Chaired by Wakefield Metropolitan District Council and comprises emergency planning officers and technical experts from a wide range of organisations.
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Lead Assessor
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The organisation with the technical expertise to assess relevant risks.
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Category 1 Responder
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Includes the emergency services, local authorities, the Environment Agency, NHS Trusts and the Health Protection Agency.
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Category 2 Responder
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Includes utility companies, the rail industry, airport operators and the Health and Safety Executive.
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Hazard
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Anything which has the potential to cause disruption or damage to humans and/or their environment.
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Impact
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The likely effect to people, the environment and property of the hazard occurring.
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Risk rating
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The assessment based on the likelihood of an incident and its impact on the community
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West Yorkshire Resilience Forum Partners
Other Useful Links
Disclaimer
Please note that by accessing external links you will be leave the West Yorkshire Police website. West Yorkshire Police are not responsible for the quality, accuracy or content of external websites.