Risk profile statement for Northamptonshire
The importance of risk assessment is emphasised by the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (CCA).
The Community Risk Register has been approved by the Northamptonshire Resilience Forum (NRF). The NRF consists of Category One responders in Northamptonshire; these are the Eight Local Authorities, Police, Fire, Ambulance, Environment Agency and Health Authorities. Their role is to ensure that there is integrated emergency management for major incidents.
The CCA places a legal duty on responders to undertake risk assessments and maintain them in a Community Risk Register, and to publish this register.
The Community Risk Register is the first step in the emergency planning process. The inclusion of these hazards, or the particular scenario (ie the outcome description) does not mean that the NRF believes the risk will materialise, or that if it were to do so, it would be at that scale. The risk scenarios are rather reasonable worst case assumptions upon which our risk assessment is based.
The likelihood assessments relate to the risk occurring over a five year period at the magnitude reflected within the outcome description. The magnitude is based on an assessment of a reasonable worse case scenario.
As part of the risk assessment process, we have been considering the likelihood and impact of a range of hazards occurring. This work, a statutory requirement under the Civil Contingencies Act, is an ongoing process and examples are provided for all the hazards to illustrate the individual assessment work that has been completed so far.
Risk assessment is not a static process and is subject to constant review and will be regularly updated.
Further information on the Civil Contingencies Act, including definitions and explanation of terms, can be found on the UK Resilience website (see Useful Links).