About Us
The Hampshire Local Resilience Forum (LRF) consists of representatives from emergency services, local authorities and any other organisations who would be involved in an emergency. The role of the LRF is to ensure that all of these organisations work together to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies.
The LRF is responsible for the development, maintenance and testing of plans and procedures for major emergencies and incidents to ensure all of the organisations are prepared to respond to a major incident in the county. This joined up approach helps to ensure the best possible service for people living in Hampshire and the effective delivery of the duties under the Civil Contingencies Act.
The HIOWLRF sits at the apex of the county's local civil protection arrangements. Its overall purpose is to ensure that there is an appropriate level of preparedness to enable an effective multi-agency response to emergencies which may have a significant impact on the communities of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
The HIOWLRF's specific objectives are:
to agree on joint strategic and policy approaches relating to preparedness and response;
to approve the Community Risk Register, and ensure it provides a robust basis for planning;
to ensure that appropriate multi-agency plans, procedures, training and exercises necessary to address identified or foreseeable local and wider area hazards are in place and outstanding gaps identified;
to direct and oversee the activities of working groups as they are established and allocate tasks to them as appropriate;
to receive reports from the working groups on current threat levels, gaps in planning and progress on actions tasked;
to ensure that appropriate resources are made available to working groups to fulfil statutory and task-based responsibilities;
to co-ordinate the individual approaches and responsibilities of each organisation to ensure that they complement each other and dovetail with partners' arrangements, and
to consider the implications of legislation, national initiatives and decisions of the Regional Resilience Forum for the Local Resilience Forum area.
The HIOWLRF Executive meets every six months and attendance is open to all partners engaged in emergency planning in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. In order to support this large group, the Business Performance Review Group (BPRG) has been constituted. This is a smaller, tactical decision making group for resilience matters in the county which meets on a quarterly basis, or more frequently if required.
A number of working groups and sub-groups have been formed to take forward action points from the main LRF, undertake development work and discuss specialist civil protection topics. They also refer matters for information, decision and endorsement by the strategic group.
The following working groups are currently in place:
Risk Assessment
Voluntary Sector
Warning and Informing
Pandemic Flu Planning Group
Business Continuity
Environment Group
Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear
Utilities providers