Regional Gold Exercise – Testing London’s Command and Control Capability

3 April 2008

Dealing with the consequences of widespread flooding across London was the subject of a multi-agency exercise which took place in the capital on Friday, 15th February 2008.

Emergency services, central and local Government, public utilities and other organisations were put through their paces during the tabletop exercise. Organisations involved include: the Police, Fire Brigade, Ambulance Service, NHS London, Government Liaison Team, military, Local Authority, utilities, transport and the Environment Agency.

The aim of the exercise was to test the multi-agency collaborative response to a regional emergency requiring the implementation of the Strategic Co-ordination Centre (SCC), thus satisfying the Civil Contingencies Act requirement for planning and testing emergency response arrangements.

The exercise was delivered by the Cabinet Office’s Emergency Planning College using their Gold Standard system. The system was developed specifically to facilitate the training and exercising of strategic decision making groups.

The exercise provided the opportunity to activate London's regional 'Gold' arrangements including Media and Recovery management capabilities. There was an initial de-brief on the day followed by a later more in depth debrief with those taking part, the results of which will be presented at the next meeting of the London Regional Resilience Forum.