Major Incident Response

The Cumbria Resilience Forum was set up in response to the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 to co-ordinate the response to major incidents in Cumbria. A group similar to the Resilience Forum had been in place since the nineteen-nineties, and this group was developed and enhanced in preparation for the Act.

The forum is made up of the Category 1 and Category 2 responders, defined by the Act, and in Cumbria includes senior executives, directors and officers from:

• Allerdale Borough Council
• Army HQ 42 (North West) Brigade
• Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council
• Carlisle City Council
• Copeland Borough Council
• Cumbria Constabulary
• Cumbria County Council
• Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service
• Eden District Council
• Government Office North West
• Health Protection Agency
• North West Ambulance Service
• North Cumbria Primary Care Trust
• South Lakeland District Council

Emergency plans in Cumbria are regularly reviewed, both by individual agencies, and by the forum itself through the work of its sub groups. Since the Civil contingencies Act, much has changed at a national, regional and local level, and the Resilience Forum updates its plans accordingly, especially in the light of learning from actual incidents.

Emergency Plan

The Strategic Response Framework document sets out how all agencies in Cumbria, including Carlisle City Council, respond to an emergency.