Name of Committee
Date of Committee
Overview and Scrutiny
25/01/12
Agenda Item No______14_______
Business Continuity
Summary:
Six monthly update on business continuity planning, the
progress made to date, ability to respond to any disruptive
events that have recently occurred and the outline of future
objectives.
Conclusions:
Recommendations:
That members note the contents of the report.
Cabinet member(s):
Ward(s) affected:
All
All
Contact Officer, telephone number, Richard Cook
01263 516269
and e-mail:
richard.cook@north-norfolk.gov.uk
1.
Introduction
Having in place effective business continuity plans (BCP) is a local authority statutory
duty within The Civil Contingencies Act 2004. In addition to the statutory duty it is good
business practice to be able to continue to deliver a quality service while affected by or
responding to any kind of disruption to business.
The core principle of BCP is that they should be written and implemented by the teams
who are the normal deliverers of the service. The role of the Civil Contingencies Team
is to train, support, coordinate and audit team/departmental plans.
1.
Team Business Continuity Plans
There are potentially 41 teams within NNDC that may require a team BCP. The Civil
Contingencies Team (CCT) is currently working with managers to identify which teams
actually require plans. At this time there are only a limited number of team plans
produced. Those teams that require a plan will have to produce their own team BCP. A
standard template is used to assist production and support and guidance is directly
available from the Civil Contingencies team.
Name of Committee
Date of Committee
Overview and Scrutiny
25/01/12
Previous feedback from teams within the Environmental Health Department has
indicated that the existing template may be acting as a disincentive to plan production.
Consequently the CCT are currently reviewing the template to simplify it and to make it
more user friendly.
2.
Business Continuity Working Group
To ensure that business continuity is embedded within the organisation the Authority
has a Business Continuity Working Group (BCWG). The BCWG is made up of key
managers from across the service and has previously had member representation. The
BCWG has not met since 02 June 2010 however, the group had its first meeting on the
16th December 2011. At this meeting I reinforced the importance of business continuity
to the Authority and for the need of senior managers to endorse it to ensure that it can
be implemented. The BCWG will meet initially on a monthly basis to maintain BCP as a
mainstream activity.
3.
Disruptive Events
30th November 2011 Potential Industrial Action
This event was used as a good opportunity for managers to review their team/service
business continuity plans, to confirm that they are up to date and relevant. Prior
planning ensured that the day of action did not unduly affect the performance of the
Authority. Feed back obtained from the BCWG highlighted that early forewarning and
planning helped to mitigate the effects on the day. The survey carried out before the
event showed that many teams/services do not have a BC plan in place. The CCT will
carry out a collation project to identify exactly what plans are in place and what plans
need to be written.
4.
Standby Power
An initial review identified that the NNDC building does not have a provision for standby
power back up, although the building does have a generator hook up point. Exercise
Lights Out was carried out in May 2009 and this identified that a 150Kva generator
could be deployed to power the critical services within the building. However, no
contract was put into place and this will leave the authority at risk. The Audit Committee
have identified this as a significant risk to the Authority. I have since put in place a new
temporary arrangement with local suppliers to provide the necessary equipment to
match what was utilised during Exercise Lights Out.
5.
Recovery Sites
Disaster Recovery and Work Action Recovery sites will be reviewed and on site
equipment checked. This action will also be taking place at all NNDC rest centres.
In the short term a “get ready for winter” web page has been produced and is on the
NNDC website under Civil Contingencies seasonal campaigns, additionally this will be
made available to all staff via the Intranet.
Name of Committee
Date of Committee
Overview and Scrutiny
25/01/12
6.
Corporate BC Plan
The NNDC BC plan is under an initial review to ensure that is it brought up to date with
correct details and contacts.
Annex Disaster Recovery (DR) and Victory Housing Reciprocal ICT Service
Agreement
8.
If the BC Plan was invoked and the annex was used as the DR site most of the
authorities systems which are virtualised would be available within an hour once power
was restored. For systems such as Revenues and Benefits, GIS, document
management and Environmental Health this would take longer as they would need to be
rebuilt and this could take up to 2 days as only one can be done at a time. Telephone
lines could be up and running within an hour. WI-FI internet would also be available at
this location.
In term of the Victory Housing facility the ICT equipment would take longer to set-up and
the exact time is not known but it would be days. The telephony would be up and
running much more quickly. The preferred location for a full DR site is being reviewed
by the BCWG.
9.
Future Objectives
For the coming six months key objectives relating to BCP are;
•
Re-instate the BCWG
•
Revising the template for team BCP’s in response to feedback within the
Environmental Health Department. This will make the template more user friendly
•
Clear identification of which teams need plans
•
Ensure that teams complete their individual team BCP’s.