Devolution

The Act applies to the whole of the UK and reflects the various devolution settlements.

Part 1 – Local arrangements for civil protection

Part 1 of the Act applies to Scotland, with the powers it sets out residing with Scottish Ministers if they relate to devolved matters. While civil protection in Scotland is largely a devolved matter and therefore the responsibility of the Scottish Executive, certain responders in Scotland operate in reserved areas, with Regulations and guidance issued by UK Ministers. More information can be found here.

In Wales, UK ministers will make legislation and issue guidance in relation to responders in Wales. However, the Act requires UK ministers to obtain the consent of the Welsh Government before taking action in relation to a responder in Wales which falls within devolved competence.

In Northern Ireland, the fire and rescue service is not designated as a Category 1 responder and so Part 1 does not apply to Northern Ireland in the same way as it applies in the rest of the UK. It does apply to certain bodies in Northern Ireland who exercise non-devolved functions (e.g. the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Police Service of Northern Ireland). In addition, the Northern Ireland Administration has developed the Northern Ireland Civil Contingencies Framework, which ensures that responders falling within transferred competence act in line with the duties set out in the Act.

Part 2 – Emergency powers

Emergency powers are a reserved matter. They focus on the use of special legislative measures that might be necessary to deal with the effects of the most serious emergencies. However, Part 2 ensures the governments and devolved administrations will be consulted wherever possible if emergency powers are to be used in their territory. It allows emergency powers to be used in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland alone for the first time, though the use of emergency powers remains with Westminster.

Concordats setting out in more detail how these arrangements will work in practice have been agreed with Welsh and Scottish ministers. The signed concordats can be viewed on the governments and devolved administrations’ websites as well as on the UK Resilience site, Resilience Direct.

Concordat between the UK government and the Scottish ministers

Concordat between the UK government and the Welsh ministers

The Act is supported by two sets of guidance:

• Emergency Preparedness: statutory guidance dealing with the pre-emergency planning phase
• Emergency Response and Recovery: non-statutory guidance describing the multi-agency framework for responding to, and recovering from, emergencies in the UK