The UK Regulators Network has published a Cross-Regulator Emergency Plan (CREP) alongside a report summarising the work regulators have been jointly undertaking on cross sector resilience issues.
The CREP sets out a prearranged communications process to be used in the event that a major incident impacts multiple infrastructure sectors and there is potential benefit to coordination between the sector regulators.
Although the UKRN expect that this will only be used in the most exceptional incidents, the CREP has been designed to complement to the extensive set of incident management and communication processes already in place.
The Cross Sector Resilience Phase 2 report concludes the UKRN’s current project on Cross-sector Resilience by summarising the work that has been undertaken. A summary of this work includes:
- Cross-Regulator Emergency Plan – a framework setting out how UKRN members will communicate directly with one another during resilience incidents affecting two or more sectors.
- Joint exercise coordination – sharing information about forthcoming exercises to test response arrangements, in order to maximise opportunities for cross-sector working. UKRN members have agreed to take this forward; and
- Cyber security assessment – working collectively and with Government colleagues to assess the level of preparedness for cyber-attacks within sectors.
The project has focussed on finding ways for the regulators to jointly tackle challenges to the resilience of UK’s national infrastructure which have cross-sector implications. UKRN said that most often, the shared challenges arise because multiple sectors face common threats (such as those from flooding or cyber-attack), or because of the interdependency created when the sectors rely on one another (such as the use of electricity by finance, telecoms and railway companies).
UKRN said cyber security remains a very important issue and work has been progressing within individual sectors. The regulators will continue to work individually with Government, its relevant agencies, and the newly announced National Cyber Centre which is expected to take a coordinating role. Although UKRN does not believe additional UKRN-coordinated activity is required at the moment, it will keep this position under review as the new arrangements develop and return to it if required.
Click here to download the Cross-Regulator Emergency Plan
Click here to download the Cross-Sector Resilience Phase 2 Report
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