British disaster planning and management: an initial assessment

The unprecedented series of damaging events experienced by Britain since the early 1980s has focussed attention on the country's arrangements for disaster prevention, planning and management. Until very recently the focus had been on planning for wartime emergencies, with events of the kind responsible for the current anxiety receiving much less attention. This is now changing and, following a wide ranging review, the government has appointed a Civil Emergencies Advisor to assist the national effort. The paper reviews these changes and makes an initial assessment of British disaster planning and management. This is not done at the operational level; rather it proceeds in terms of key issues emerging from the literature and the government review: organisational structure; information flow; national policy or guidelines; and learning from disasters.