Emergency arrangements - Maintenance and issue of the emergency procedures handbook

Issue Date:

12/06/09

Review Date:

12/06/12

Open Government Status:

Fully open

Approved By:

R Gray

1. Purpose and scope

1.1 This document describes the procedure to be followed for the issue and maintenance of the NII Emergency Procedures Handbook.

2. Policy

2.1 NII is expected to respond to a range of unplanned nuclear events on nuclear sites. In addition and in view of the expertise within the organisation, NII may be requested to provide advice to government on nuclear events not connected with nuclear sites, especially overseas events. NII inspectors and administrators who may provide NII's initial response to such events are issued with appropriate procedures and guidance. These documents form the NII's Emergency Procedures Handbook (EPHB).

2.2 Most of these documents lie within Business Management System (BMS), and are thus subject to the normal controls and distribution arrangements for documents of this type. However in view of the need to have these documents available at home outside normal working hours, additional copies are issued to appropriate NII staff.

3. Responsibilities

3.1 The Deputy Chief Inspector (DCI) leading on 'Inspection' is responsible for approving the BMS documents relating to NII's emergency arrangements.

3.2 The Unit Head is responsible for approving changes to the Overview document, the Emergency Arrangements Communications Directory (EACD) and the Emergency Arrangements Distribution List (EADL), and ensuring the timely re-issue of these documents; and maintaining and developing NII's emergency arrangements, including any additional training needs.

3.3 The Emergency Room Officer (ERO) is responsible for updating the EACD and the EADL, and distributing the EPHB.

4. Definitions

4.1 The Unit Head is the head of the Unit within ND that has responsibility for NII's emergency arrangements.

4.2 The ERO is a band 5 administrator who supports the Unit Head on emergency arrangements.

4.3 The Emergency Procedures Handbook comprises the following documents:

1) Overview of NII response to nuclear events

2) Initial notification and event classification, INS/015

3) NII Response to a Class 1 (civil) event, INS/016

4) NII Response to a Class 1 (MOD) event, INS/017

5) NII Response to a Class 2 event, INS/018

6) NII Response to a Class 3 event, INS/019

7) ND's Fast Stream Reporting Process, INS/011

8) NII Response to a Class 4 event, INS/020

9) NII Response to a Class 5 event, INS/021

10) NII Response to a Class 6 event, INS/022

11) Emergency Arrangements Communications Directory (EACD)

12) Emergency Arrangements Distribution List (EADL).

5. Procedure

5.1 The Unit Head initiates a review to check the accuracy of the EACD and the EADL at six monthly intervals (as required by HSE policy on major incident response (see ref 6.1 ) or whenever any relevant staff moves are announced.

5.2 The ERO reviews the EACD and the EADL at the request of the Unit Head, and revises them accordingly. The ERO submits the revised documents to the Unit Head for approval.

5.3 The Unit Head approves any changes to the Overview document, the EACD or EADL; and ensures that the EACD and the EADL are re-issued.

5.4 The Unit Head uses the Level 2 / 3 emergency exercise programme to test the adequacy of the HSE / NII response to nuclear events. The Unit Head ensures that the arrangements are tested at least every 24 months against the criteria in Appendix 2 of ref 6.1, seeking feedback from HSE / NII staff participating in emergency exercises, and taking account of comments from other participants.

5.5 Those parts of the EPHB that are BMS documents will be reviewed according to standard procedures at three yearly intervals. However, the Unit Head will keep the effectiveness of the NII's emergency arrangements under review, and will instigate the revision of the appropriate documents (including the Overview document) more frequently as necessary.

5.6 The DCI leading on 'Inspection' approves the BMS documents relating to NII's emergency arrangements, including those in the EPHB.

5.7 When revisions are made to the documents constituting the EPHB (as defined in Section 4 ), this will be done in consultation with the Business System Manager. The ERO will arrange the distribution of these documents according to the EADL.

6. Associated documents

6.1  HSE’s Major incident and civil contingencies procedure replacing - Operations Unit,  Document G - major incident response and investigation policy and procedures.

6.2 (See Section 4 for the composition of the EPHB)