The Communities and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee met on Monday 29 June 2026 to discuss the council's arrangements for emergency preparedness, response, and business continuity. The committee also reviewed its work programme for the upcoming year.

Update on the Work of the Civil Contingencies Team

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on Northumberland County Council's arrangements for emergency preparedness, resilience, and response. The report detailed the council's statutory duties as a Category 1 responder under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004¹, which include assessing risks, maintaining emergency and business continuity plans, and informing the public.

The Civil Contingencies Team, which transferred from Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service to the Public Health, Inequalities and Stronger Communities directorate in May 2025, operates under the oversight of the Civil Contingencies Oversight Group (CCOG). This group meets monthly and includes representatives from all directorates, reporting to the Executive Management Team (EMT). The report highlighted the alignment of corporate risk with civil contingencies legislation, with the Emergency Response and Business Continuity corporate risk score remaining at C3 (moderate likelihood/high impact).

Key areas of focus included:

• Emergency Planning and Preparedness: The council maintains a suite of plans, including the Northumberland Incident Response Plan (NIRP), Severe Weather Plan, Flood Action Plan, Assistance Centres Plan, and Pandemic Preparedness and Response Plan. A new Assistance Centres Plan has been developed to improve support for displaced residents, building on learning from incidents such as Grenfell.
• Business Continuity: Significant progress has been made in strengthening Business Continuity Management (BCM), with improved assurance ratings from Internal Audit and an ongoing programme of Business Impact Analysis reviews, plan updates, and scenario-based exercises.
• Training, Exercising and Incident Response: An active programme of internal and external exercises is maintained, including strategic and tactical business continuity exercises, major incident exercises, and participation in national exercises such as Exercise Pegasus (pandemic) and Exercise Cerberus (counter-terrorism). Lessons learned from various incidents, including severe weather and environmental incidents, are routinely reported to CCOG.
• Data and Situational Awareness: A Data in Emergencies programme has been developed to improve data sharing and the identification of vulnerable residents.
• Partnership Working: The council works through the Northumbria Local Resilience Forum (LRF), a statutory partnership. A new political Resilience Board has been established within the LRF area, with Councillor Gordon Stewart, Cabinet Member for Public Safety, representing the council.
• Community Resilience: A programme of Community Resilience Forums has been established to bring together communities, parish councils, voluntary groups, and partners to share information on risks and preparedness, and to build local capacity.

The report outlined key achievements, including the establishment of CCOG governance, alignment of corporate risk with statutory duties, improved business continuity, development of emergency plans, and the implementation of a community resilience programme. Priorities for the future include embedding governance arrangements, finalising the Recovery and Restoration Plan and Emergency Communications Plan, strengthening business continuity management, developing a corporate resilience strategy, and enhancing community resilience.

Communities and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme and Monitoring Report

The committee was also scheduled to consider its work programme for the 2025/26 council year. This included reviewing the terms of reference for the committee, which cover areas such as Public Safety, Culture, Leisure and Tourism, Roads and Highways, Environment, Rural and Farming, and Housing and Planning. The report outlined issues to be timetabled or considered for inclusion, such as a Local Plan Scoping presentation, the Destination Management Plan, and the Public Toilet Improvement Plan.

The report also provided a monitoring report detailing the committee's activities from the previous year. This included scrutiny of highways maintenance, the North East Local Transport Plan, Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service's annual performance, and storm resilience measures. The committee had also reviewed progress on the Great Northumberland Forest programme and the development of the Woodland and Tree Strategy, as well as examining the library service redesign and the operations of Places for People Leisure.