An experienced EA member of staff responsible for overall incident control. They will be responsible
for directing the environmental response and providing support services to the site controller
and field staff at the incident. Other duties include mobilising external and internal resources
at a regional and area level.

BASIS is an independent standards setting and auditing organisation for the pesticide, fertiliser and allied industries.
(Previously: British Agrochemical Standards Inspection Scheme)

A nominated person who will exercise command and control of forward operations within a given area of operations. Similar to the role of sector commander

Professional association whose members are volunteer medical practitioners trained and equipped for the pre-hospital care of casualties at the scene of an accident or emergency

A hot spot in a fire

A first aid technique which combines external cardiac massage with rescue breathing (inflating the lungs by using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation)

Ambulance officer who, in liaison with the Medical Incident Commander, ensures an efficient patient throughput at the Casualty Clearing Station

Entity set up at the scene of an emergency by the ambulance service in liaison with the Medical Incident Commander to assess, triage and treat casualties and direct their evacuation

Element within the Casualty Bureau responsible for the recording of casualty data forwarded by Hospital Documentation Teams

A person or body listed in Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Civil Contingencies Act. These bodies are likely to be at the core of the response to most emergencies. As such, they are subject to the full range of civil protection duties in the Act.

A person or body listed in Part 3 of Schedule 1 to the Civil Contingencies Act. These are co-operating responders who are less likely to be involved in the heart of multi-agency planning work, but will be heavily involved in preparing for incidents affecting their sectors. The Act requires them to co-operate and share information with other Category 1 and 2 responders.

Originally the term used to denote an overhead power line support wire derived from the curve a suspended wire naturally assumes under the force of gravity. Now adopted to mean the whole overhead line system.

The part of the track bed outside the ballast shoulder that is deliberately maintained lower than the sleeper bottom. The area immediately outside the ballast shoulder but not between tracks.

A chemical information database provided by the National Chemical Emergency Centre (NCEC).

CHEMET can be used to track the dispersion of a chemical release. Telephone advice is available on demand which will give a simple short-range prediction of the anticipated behaviour of the plume. In an incident involving hazardous chemicals, local fire and police services can contact the Met Office Environment Monitoring and Response Centre (EMARC). For small-scale events, EMARC produces meteorological guidance and a plume prediction as a chemical meteorology (CHEMET) report. For larger release events, such as the Buncefield Oil Depot fire, more-sophisticated plume modelling techniques are used.

A CAS registry number, also referred to as CASRN or CAS number, is a unique numerical identifier assigned by the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) to every chemical substance described in the open scientific literature, including organic and inorganic compounds, minerals, isotopes, alloys and non-structural materials.

National policy forum chaired by the Health and Safety Executive, including representatives of the Local Government Association and emergency planners

Used to describe Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive materials. CBRNE terrorism is the actual or threatened dispersal of CBRN material (either on their own or in combination with each other or with explosives), with deliberate criminal, malicious or murderous intent

Scheme provided through the Chemical Industries Association to provide a rapid and co-ordinated response to minimise adverse effects to the public, property and the environment following a chemical distribution incident. 3 levels of service exist. 1 - information, 2 - advice at scene, 3 - practical assistance at scene.

An airtight and watertight dressing for chest wounds

Single display of information collected from and shared by more than one agency or organisation that contributes to a common understanding of a situation and its associated hazards and risks along with the position of resources and other overlays of information that support individual and collective decision making

A single, authoritative strategic overview of an emergency or crisis that is developed according to a standard template and is intended for briefing and decision-support purposes.

Two or more diseases existing at the same time in the body

1. The statement of UK Central Government arrangements for responding to an Emergency.
2. A high level description of how a defined system will operate to achieve defined strategic objectives. CONOPS will establish the higher-level framework within which more specific, operational-level plans, protocols and procedures will be developed and implemented.

Type of explosion in a liquefied hydrocarbon or other flammable gas cloud in a confined space, such as vessels, pipelines or buildings.