What is emergency planning
Emergencies can happen at any time and often without warning. They can range from incidents caused by human error, such as major road traffic collisions, to extreme weather events like flooding, heavy snow, or severe storms.
These types of emergencies may be:
- loss of essential services such as water, electricity, gas, or telecommunications
- damage to homes, businesses, and local infrastructure
- temporary evacuation from your home or neighbourhood
The London Borough of Harrow Council is committed to assuring our service outputs at optimum levels and a small team seeks to assure business continuity as well as being able to respond to emergencies and minimise their impact on residents, businesses, and the environment.
Our work is guided by the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, which sets out how local areas in the UK prepare for and respond to major incidents.
How the Civil Contingencies Act Supports Local Resilience
The Act provides a clear framework for managing emergency response and recovery at a local level. It ensures that organisations best placed to respond to incidents are at the centre of civil protection and community resilience.
It does this by:
- defining clear roles and responsibilities for emergency response and recovery, strengthening cooperation and communication across agencies
- creating a consistent structure for local emergency planning, including the importance of business continuity and resilience
- setting expectations for reviewing, testing, and updating local emergency plans to ensure they remain effective and relevant
The Act also identifies two types of responders - Category 1 and Category 2 - each with different duties.
Category 1 Responders
Category 1 responders are the organisations at the heart of most emergency responses. They include:
- Police
- Fire Brigade
- Ambulance Service
- NHS bodies
- Local authorities (including Harrow Council)
As a Category 1 responder, Harrow Council has statutory duties to:
- develop, maintain and routinely test emergency plans
- assess local risks and produce public-facing information (such as our community risk register)
- warn and inform residents during major incidents, including severe weather
- maintain business continuity arrangements to ensure critical services keep running
- work closely with emergency services, the NHS, and other partners across London to coordinate a multi‑agency response when needed
Category 2 Responders
Category 2 responders are “cooperating organisations”. They play a key role in incidents affecting their own sectors and support Category 1 responders during a major emergency.
Category 2 responders include:
- utility companies (water, gas, electricity, telecommunications)
- transport operators
- the Health and Safety Executive
- certain voluntary and community sector organisations
Although they are not at the forefront of emergency planning, they play a vital role in response and recovery and work closely with Category 1 responders when an incident occurs.
Key contact details
Hospitals
- Northwick Park Hospital NHS Trust: 020 8864 3232
- Clementine Churchill Hospital: 020 8872 3872
- St. Mark's Hospital: 020 8235 4000
Local emergency support
- Harrow police station: 101
- NHS: 111
- Harrow Fire Service: 020 7587 4721
- Emergency services: 999
- Fire service (non-emergency): 020 8555 1200
- Anti-terrorism hotline: 0800 789 321
Floods
- The Environment Agency: 0845 9333 111