Business continuity management

The Cabinet Office Business Continuity Management Toolkit defines the term in its opening section: "Business Continuity Management (BCM) is about identifying those parts of your organisation that you can't afford to lose, such as information, stock, premises, staff, and planning how to maintain these, if an incident occurs."

The toolkit says BCM "is simpler than you might think" and reduces it to four questions: the organisation's key products and services; the critical activities and resources required to deliver them; the risks to those activities; and how they will be maintained in an incident such as loss of access to premises or loss of utilities. Its six sections run from programme management, through understanding the organisation by a business impact analysis and risk assessment, "the foundation work from which the whole process is built", to determining strategy, developing and implementing the response, exercising, maintaining and reviewing the arrangements, and embedding BCM in the organisation's culture.

BCM "is an established part of the UK's preparations for managing risks faced by organisations". Gov.uk guidance on responder responsibilities lists putting BCM arrangements in place among the duties of Category 1 responders, and advising business and voluntary organisations on it among the duties of local authorities.