This paper discusses ResilienceDirect - the UK's strategic resilience platform for response and information sharing, designed to support the multi-agency aspects of emergency response. The paper will focus on the functionality of the system as well as the related challenges. The paper identifies a set of recommendations for addressing the challenges to improve usability and uptake. The recommendations will consider best practices from other multi-agency response platforms and feedback from ResilienceDirect users.
With the rise of climatic concerns and cybersecurity incidents comes the expectation that investments are made in business continuity measures. This expectation has legal teeth from the perspective of shareholders as well as regulatory bodies, contracting attorneys, vendors and supply chain entities. This paper explores the use of US legal system as a tool for enforcing liability and action from decision makers like the board of directors and C-suite officers, as well as between the parties of contracts. Shareholder derivative lawsuits, which occur predominately in the USA but have, as recently as 2020, started to include foreign-owned businesses, and breach of contract claims are two of the more prominent issues with business continuity tie-ins. This paper intends to arm the business continuity professional with a knowledge base about legal liability for failure to have a business continuity plan, an understanding of how disasters and disruptions will excuse the full performance of a contract and an ability to determine proper courses of action with respect to supply allocation after an incident.
Among the most vulnerable facilities to tsunami impacts are ports, harbours and marinas. The ability of maritime infrastructure to withstand a disaster and resume operations quickly plays a major factor in the recovery of the local community and economy in the short and long term. Despite this, little established guidance exists to assist the maritime community with addressing their tsunami risk in an actionable, site-specific manner. To close this gap and improve the resilience of its maritime community, Washington State has begun developing tsunami maritime response and mitigation strategies for major ports, harbours and marinas along its 3,200 miles of coastline. These strategies include detailed information about the location's specific tsunami risk, recommended guidance for vessel operators in the area, and tsunami mitigation and response recommendations ranked by their implementation feasibility for the maritime entity in question. Most importantly, the strategies are created through close collaboration with local key stakeholders, subject matter experts, local emergency management and state agencies to ensure a final deliverable that is accurate, thorough and, above all, useful to the local maritime entity and its tenants and users. As this paper will discuss, the lessons learned during the planning and delivery of these strategies provide valuable insight for professionals in the maritime, business continuity and emergency management fields, including how to conduct effective and inclusive stakeholder engagement, identify gaps and opportunities in resilience planning, and establish a deeper understanding of tsunami maritime risk and hazards.
This paper discusses how the experience and skill set developed within the field of business continuity management (BCM) provide a strong base from which organisations can leverage value in areas not traditionally considered within the remit of BCM. In particular, the paper examines the topic of climate-related financial disclosure, an important area that is gaining traction with investors and therefore senior executives too. Although, in itself, it is not an incident or event, this new area of focus has the potential to impact a company's ability to thrive and prosper. This paper will discuss how the recommendations of the Financial Stability Board's Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure strengthen an organisation's business continuity programme strategy, as well as sustainability objectives, by enabling executive-level conversations about the organisation's operational and financial resilience, as well as actions with a positive outcome for the environment that will lead to competitive advantage. This paper argues that by facilitating these discussions, BCM helps to establish organisational priorities and develop specific action plans that can be validated through exercising.
The Maryland Department of Emergency Management was established in October 2021 after decades of reorganisation and relocation within state government. The elevation of the agency from under the Maryland Military Department to a cabinet-level department was a result of years of partnership building with stakeholders as well as two significant external pressures: the COVID-19 response and the interest in improving 911 delivery through the implementation of next-generation 911 technology. This case study examines the history of emergency management organisation in Maryland and highlights lessons learned and best practices for emergency managers seeking to elevate emergency management from a subagency level to a cabinet level or direct report to the highest elected official.
