Business continuity
Civil emergencies — Authorised Professional Practice
Summary
Business continuity planning is essential for police forces to maintain operational effectiveness during emergencies or major incidents. This planning helps prioritize functions when day-to-day operations are compromised and ensures continued policing provision across affected areas, which is vital for maintaining the rule of law. Business continuity management encompasses the organization's ability to plan for and respond to disruptions, maintaining pre-defined operational levels. Local business continuity plans are produced by Category 1 responders and must be supported by local resilience forums. Plans must consider resources, staffing, IT, and infrastructure to sustain critical operations, ensuring a strategic response to potential incidents.
Key principles
- 1Business continuity planning is vital for maintaining operational effectiveness during emergencies.
- 2Continued policing provision across affected areas is necessary to uphold law and order.
- 3Plans must prioritize critical functions and allocate resources effectively during disruptions.
- 4Local resilience forums should support the development and implementation of business continuity plans.
- 5Each force must evaluate its unique risks and resources when planning for business continuity.
Defined terms
- Category 1 responders
- Organisations that have specific Civil Contingencies Act duties.
Full guidance
This page is from APP, the official source of professional practice for policing.
An emergency or major incident is likely to place a significant burden on the police. Business continuity planning helps police forces understand the relative priority of functions if their ability to maintain day-to-day operations has been compromised. A continued policing provision is still required, both in the area directly affected and across the rest of the force area. This requirement is one of the strategic objectives in maintaining the rule of law. The effectiveness of any response to an incident can be reduced where there is a partial or full breakdown in law and order in the location and wider affected area.
Business continuity management is the strategic and tactical capability of the organisation to plan for and respond to incidents and business disruptions, so business operations can continue at an acceptable pre-defined level.
The starting point for business continuity plans is that normal business cannot be achieved in extraordinary circumstances. It is, therefore, important that resources can be deployed and reallocated to critical functions. Planning must consider the likelihood and effects of losing one or more critical activities or infrastructure. Business continuity plans list the minimum resources and staffing levels required to fulfil only those functions.
Plans should consider the IT, equipment, building and human resources required to deliver identified critical functions for each department. The risk and resilience of each force is different and must be evaluated locally.
Category 1 responders produce local business continuity plans. Local resilience forums (LRFs) need to be aware of these plans and support business continuity management activities. The National Police Chiefs' Council has produced new business continuity management guidance .
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Read the full APP guidanceSource: College of Policing — Authorised Professional Practice · Crown copyright, licensed under Open Government Licence v3.0. Summary fetched 2026-06-27.