Be prepared - advice for businesses and voluntary organisations
As part of our duties under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004,
Perth & Kinross Council provides advice on business continuity
to businesses and voluntary organisations.
Business continuity means having plans in place that will allow
you to provide business as usual in the quickest possible time,
should an emergency arise that threatens the running of your
organisation or the delivery of a service.
How we can help
Perth & Kinross Councils Emergency Planning Service can
offer advice free of charge in developing business continuity plans
for your organisation. We cannot prepare the plans for you you are
best placed to know your business and its critical processes but we
can provide advice on how to put effective plans together.
Examples of business continuity risks
- How long could your critical services continue if your utility
services were lost?
- If your premises had to be evacuated, would this jeopardise
your critical services? Would you have alternative working
arrangements you could put in place, for example could staff work
from home?
- Would there be financial/legal/regulatory penalties if you
failed to provide a critical service?
There are five key stages that make up the business continuity
planning cycle.
1. Analyse your business
Make a list of the critical services in priority order and
consider where you may be vulnerable. The process will
determine:
- What does your business produce?
- What key staff and systems are necessary for the delivery of
that service?
2. Assess the risks
How likely is an identified risk to occur? How will it affect
your business?
- What can go wrong?
- How will it affect delivery of your service?
3. Develop your strategy
Your strategy will determine:
- How can you reduce the risks
- How you recover from disruptive incidents
4. Develop your plan
A simple generic plan will provide:
- A list of actions to enable you to continue your
services
5. Rehearse your plan
- Test the plan to identify problems
For more information call the Council on 01738 475000 or email
enquiries@pkc.gov.uk
