Have to Know British Government Emergency Rescue Experience

Natural disasters and natural disasters are inevitable, but what we need to do is to constantly learn from the incidents. Here, let everyone know about the UK's emergency rescue mechanism.

Complete emergency response mechanism

In Britain, after the disaster, local governments that can quickly respond to the crisis are the protagonists of crisis management. In the case of disasters that exceed the capacity of the local government, neighboring regions will provide help.

Emergency planning agencies have been set up in various regions of the United Kingdom to take charge of regional crisis warnings, formulate relevant plans and conduct emergency training. The head of the agency, the “Emergency Planning Officer,” is responsible for coordinating local resources to deal with the crisis and consulting and requesting support from government departments. The Central Government of the United Kingdom is responsible for responding to certain types of events (such as nuclear accidents) or major events (such as major terrorist attacks) that affect more than the local scope. According to the disaster situation, relevant government departments will be designated as “leading government departments” responsible for coordinating actions at the central level, ensuring smooth communication between various departments and local governments, and responsible for collecting and publishing disaster information and disaster relief information.

In order to improve emergency response capabilities, in July 2001, the British Cabinet Office set up a "National Emergency Secretariat", is responsible for formulating policy crisis, risk assessment, coordination and personnel training. The highest institution of crisis management in the British government is the Cabinet Emergency Committee, COBRA , which was only activated during major crisis events. The Commission treated the crisis including the 1999 Kosovo war, in September 2000 the British fuel supply shortages, foot and mouth disease outbreak in the UK in 2001, in July 2005 terrorist attacks in London in April 2006 and found avian flu.

Clear responsibility for post-disaster reconstruction

It is a long-term task to restore industrial and agricultural production and the economy in the affected areas. In England, after the disaster, the local assessment office will assess the degree of loss and liability of the industrial and agricultural units in the affected areas, provide financial assistance according to actual conditions, and adopt tax relief and other measures so that the affected units can resume normal operations as soon as possible. Each local government department must also provide disaster-prone organizations with advice and support for the restoration of production, including continuous operations planning and financing advice. In the post-disaster recovery phase, local government expenditures on clean-up work, infrastructure maintenance and humanitarian assistance are partly paid by insurance companies and local financing agencies, and some are obtained from the central government.

The United Kingdom attaches great importance to the restoration and reconstruction of damaged traffic infrastructure in the affected areas. The agencies have clear division of labor and clear responsibilities. After the disaster, the British Central Government will allocate funds in time to subsidize maintenance facilities and resume traffic. After the floods in the summer of 2007 , the British government provided 63 million pounds of funds to the local government to repair the damaged road.

Take precautions to prevent

In response to emergency relief work, the British government first focused on disaster prevention and mitigation, requiring organizations to incorporate crisis management into their daily work priorities, conduct risk assessments, and prevent disasters, and conduct necessary training and drills to make full preparations. Just in case.

The United Kingdom also pays attention to drawing lessons from specific incidents and improving the ability to respond to emergencies. In the summer of 2007 , major floods occurred in England and Wales, 13 people died and 48,000 houses were destroyed. After floods, local governments made suggestions on disaster early warning, risk assessment, emergency facilities, and disaster information release to help improve the nation’s national emergency response mechanism, including strengthening the collection and dissemination of information on disaster situations and relief work. It facilitates communication at all levels and helps to calm the panic of the affected people.

In addition, after the floods, British local governments strengthened their emphasis on raising public awareness of disaster reduction. Citizens are required to have the emergency awareness of floods and make preparations, such as listing the most needed telephone numbers and knowing how to turn off the water, electricity, and natural gas systems after the disaster. At the same time, it requires home-equipped flood disaster kits, including personal key information materials, insurance policies, emergency contact telephones, flashlights, batteries, radios, cell phones, rubber gloves, wet cloths, antibacterial dry-cleaning hand gels, and blankets.

The information in this article comes from the Internet and was reorganized and edited by China Rescue Equipment Network.