Strategies & Plans
Page updated: 26/09/2024
Every department and business unit produce a Business Plan, which, sets out objectives and resources for the year ahead.
Copies of all these documents are available from your Line Manager.
This strategy is published and drives the business planning and improvement planning process and is monitored via PIMS.
Emergencies happen. In the last few years, Wales has experienced severe winter weather, flooding, travel disruption, fuel shortages, animal diseases, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Government has put in place statutory legislation to assist us in meeting the challenge of dealing with such emergencies.
Background
Following the fuel crisis and the severe flooding in the autumn and winter of 2000 and the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in 2001, the Government announced a review of emergency planning arrangements. The review included a public consultation exercise which reinforced the Government’s conclusion that existing legislation no longer provided an adequate framework for modern civil protection efforts and that new legislation was needed.
This led to the Civil Contingencies Bill being introduced to Parliament on 7 January 2004. The Bill received Royal Assent on 18 November 2004 and henceforth became known as the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (the “Act”).
Overview of the Act
The Act is separated into two substantive parts:
- Part 1: focuses on local arrangements for civil protection, establishing a statutory framework of roles and responsibilities for local responders.
- Part 2: focuses on emergency powers, establishing a modern framework for the use of special legislative measures that might be necessary to deal with the effects of the most serious emergencies.
Key to modernising existing legislation is updating the definition of what constitutes an “emergency”.
Definition of Emergency
The definition of emergency in the Act focuses on the consequences of emergencies. It defines an emergency as:
- an event or situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare;
- an event or situation which threatens serious damage to the environment; or
- war, or terrorism, which threatens serious damage to security.
As Local Authorities are included as “Category 1” Responders along with the Emergency Services, Health Bodies and Government Agencies, they have to comply with six “Duties” under the Act.
These are:
- Assess the risk of emergencies occurring and use this to inform contingency planning;
- Put in place emergency plans;
- Put in place Business Continuity Management arrangements;
- Put in place arrangements to make information available to the public about civil protection matters and maintain arrangements to warn, inform and advise the public in the event of an emergency;
- Share information with other local responders to enhance co-ordination;
- Co-operate with other local responders to enhance co-ordination and efficiency;
Counter terrorism
We are proud to support Counter Terrorism Policing’s Action Counters Terrorism (ACT Campaign) to encourage the public to help the police tackle terrorism and save lives by reporting suspicious behaviour and activity.
With the enduring terrorist threat, it is now more important than ever that everyone – including council staff – plays their part in tackling terrorism. Our actions could save lives.
Like other criminals, terrorists need to plan. If you see or hear something unusual or suspicious trust your instincts and ACT by reporting it in confidence at gov.uk/ACT. If it’s an emergency call 999.
Watch the ACT film to learn more
Useful Links
The links below provide further information on how these duties relate to Carmarthenshire County Council. Please note that these links are only accessible to certain officers within the Authority.
Due to recently enacted legislation relating to the Welsh language and policy developments in Wales, it is timely that we ensure that appropriate arrangements are in place in order that adequate staffing for bilingual services is available in Welsh and English to the public.
We are committed to promoting equality and diversity both to you and to the community we serve through our Strategic Equality Plan. We provide information and guidance to you about our commitment and our individual responsibilities to ensure we meet our goals.
The Welsh Language Standards detail the Authority’s responsibility to deliver a bilingual service to our customers and promote the use of the Language in our workplace.
Further information can be seen in our Compliance Notice from the Welsh Language Commissioner.
This toolkit comprises different tools to assist with the different stages of workforce planning. It has been developed for Heads of Service and their management teams to help them identify priorities and key actions that their service will need to address to respond to future workforce issues.