Agenda item

To consider the report and make any appropriate recommendations to Cabinet.

In presenting the report the Environmental Health Manager reminded Members that the Committee had received an annual update report at their meeting on 21 July 2015.  The revised policy and strategy documents would be submitted to Cabinet on 9 September 2015.recommending acceptance by full Council on 24 September 2015.

The Environmental Health Manager advised that the Council’s Policy Statement on Business Continuity Management was agreed by full Council in September 2013 and had been updated to reflect the changes to the management structure with effect from May 2015.

Members were informed that whilst updating the Policy Statement, the whole document, including details of the Council’s strategy and approach had been updated.

The Committee’s attention was drawn to the following sections of the report:

·         Background.

·         Policy Statement and Strategy Document Update.

·         Next Steps.

The Environmental Health Manager advised that the membership of the Critical Incident Team (CIT) was reviewed.  Geoff Hall had taken on the lead following the retirement of David Thomason, Matthew Henry and Neil Gromett had been co-opted onto the CIT.

In response to questions from Councillor Gourlay, the Environmental Health Manager confirmed the membership of the Business Continuity Corporate Officer Group (BC COG) as follows:

Chairman                    Geoff Hall, Executive Director

V Dunmall, K Kent, D Robson, M Henry, M Johnson, M Chisholm

The membership of the CIT:

Chairman                    Geoff Hall, Executive Director

D Robson, M Chisholm, N Johnson, D Clack.  Co-opted Members:  M Henry, N Gromett.

It was noted that appropriate officers would be called in dependent on the nature of any incident which occurred.

Councillor Devereux referred to a question asked at the previous meeting on what the day to day impact would be on the Borough Council if the facility to carry outs its online banking activities was not available.  He asked what provision would be made regarding communications updates with external organisations.

The Environmental Manager reminded the Committee of the answer given at the last meeting.  The Assistant Director added that when the Council had undertaken the bank tendering exercise, the criteria had stated that the relevant banking organisation was required to have its own business continuity arrangements in place.  If, however, the ICT systems went down there were a number of other ways the Borough Council could make payments and gave examples of officers within the Council who had corporate credit cards.  There were also off site arrangements which would allow payment by cheque or alternative methods.

In response to comments and questions from Councillor Devereux on Member involvement, the Environmental Health Manager outlined both the business continuity and emergency planning aspects and advised that Members would be kept updated on a regular basis.  The Leader, Councillor Daubney advised that regular bulletins would be available and gave an assurance that Members would be kept updated.

The Environmental Health Manager stated that if Members wished to receive any further training then specific sessions could be scheduled accordingly.

In response to questions from the Chairman, Councillor Humphrey on the next steps and planning for and running training exercise Metis 15, the Environmental Health Manager explained that during last year training had been available to all staff.  On previous occasions an exercise had been undertaken involving senior management and the Bronze Level Plans.  The role of the Business Continuity Corporate Officer group was to identify any areas which had not recently been test to see if they were any issues which required addressing and to produce a report.

Following comments from Councillor Gourlay, the Environmental Health Manager explained that business continuity and emergency planning were two separate issues and provided examples of both.

RESOLVED:  That the Committee support the recommendations to Cabinet as follows:

1)            Cabinet accept the new version of the Business Continuity Policy Statement and Strategy, attached, and that they recommend full acceptance by full Council.

2)                  Delegated authority be granted to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader, as Portfolio Holder for Business Continuity, to make further minor changes if deemed necessary.