JESIP and joint working

JESIP is the Joint Emergency Service Interoperability Principles, the expansion the UK Government Resilience Action Plan 2026 Implementation Report gives. It exists because the emergency services, while good at their own jobs, have at times failed to work well together at the scene of a major incident. This page describes why the programme was set up, what it produced, and how it fits with the wider system.

Why it was created

The JESIP website says that reviews of a number of major national emergencies and disasters made clear that the emergency services carry out their individual roles efficiently and professionally. The problem lay between them. JESIP commissioned a review of all the major incidents from 1986 to 2010 where a public inquiry had been held, to identify recurring issues that contributed to the lack of interoperability. The research was carried out by the Cabinet Office Emergency Planning College and its findings are published as the Pollock Report.

The Emergency Response and Recovery guidance published by the Cabinet Office makes a related distinction. It separates single-agency command and control structures, often termed gold, silver and bronze, from the multi-agency co-ordination structures convened at strategic, tactical and, exceptionally, operational levels. Its guiding principles for response include co-operation, which it describes as positive engagement and information sharing between all agencies and at all levels.

The Joint Doctrine

To address the findings, JESIP produced the Joint Doctrine: the Interoperability Framework, now in its third edition. The website says it provides the foundation for all responder organisation multi-agency working in the UK and a set of common models and principles to help achieve interoperability.

The five principles

The doctrine's principles for joint working, as set out on the JESIP website, are:

• Co-locate. Responders who are in the same place communicate better and understand each other's work, which supports joint working. For regional or national responses co-location may be virtual.
• Communicate. Meaningful and effective communication between responders and responder organisations underpins effective joint working.
• Co-ordinate. Responders discuss resources, agree priorities and make joint decisions, so that their actions do not conflict and work is not duplicated.
• Jointly understand risk. Each organisation carries out its own risk assessment and then shares the results so that planning is co-ordinated.
• Shared situational awareness. A common understanding of the circumstances, immediate consequences and implications of the emergency.

The tools

Alongside the doctrine the website lists supporting products. Joint Organisational Learning, known as JOL Online, is a web-based platform hosted within ResilienceDirect where responder organisations share lessons and notable practice from testing, training, exercising and incident debriefs. The UK Government Resilience Action Plan 2026 Implementation Report records that JESIP relaunched the platform on ResilienceDirect during the year to June 2026, bringing together lessons, notable practice and action notes and supporting Category 1 and 2 responders and partners to share operational learning across the UK.

M/ETHANE is the common template for passing information about an incident. Templates, an exercise assurance framework and other documents are in the downloads section of the JESIP site, and a mobile and web application gives responders the principles, the Joint Decision Model and a M/ETHANE report form.

Training

JESIP developed training with partners across the country so that the doctrine is delivered consistently. The products listed are a one-day facilitated Multi-agency Interoperability Training Course for control room staff and commanders, a short awareness presentation for all staff, an e-learning package, animated films including on M/ETHANE, and the application.

How it fits the legal framework

JESIP is not a statute. The duties to co-operate and share information sit in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and the 2005 Regulations, and are described on the seven duties page. JESIP is the practical method the services use to meet those duties at the scene. The training side of the national system is described on the UK Resilience Academy page.