What counts as an emergency

The word emergency is used loosely in daily life. In the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 it has a fixed meaning, and that meaning decides when the duties in Part 1 apply. This page sets out the definition as the Act states it.

The three limbs of section 1(1)

Section 1(1) says that in Part 1 "emergency" means one of three things:

• an event or situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare in a place in the United Kingdom
• an event or situation which threatens serious damage to the environment of a place in the United Kingdom
• war, or terrorism, which threatens serious damage to the security of the United Kingdom

Section 1(5) adds that the event or situation may occur or be inside or outside the United Kingdom. What matters is where the damage is threatened, not where the cause sits.

What counts as damage to human welfare

Section 1(2) narrows the first limb. An event or situation threatens damage to human welfare only if it involves, causes or may cause one or more of:

• loss of human life
• human illness or injury
• homelessness
• damage to property
• disruption of a supply of money, food, water, energy or fuel
• disruption of a system of communication
• disruption of facilities for transport
• disruption of services relating to health

The list explains why a long power cut, a water supply failure or a loss of telephone networks can be an emergency under the Act even when nobody has been hurt. Disruption of a supply or a system is enough, if the damage threatened is serious.

What counts as damage to the environment

Section 1(3) does the same for the second limb. An event or situation threatens damage to the environment only if it involves, causes or may cause contamination of land, water or air with biological, chemical or radio-active matter, or disruption or destruction of plant life or animal life.

War and terrorism

Section 18(1) gives the meanings for the third limb. "Terrorism" has the meaning given by section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2000, and "war" includes armed conflict.

Ministers can adjust the lists

Under section 1(4) a Minister of the Crown, or the Scottish Ministers in relation to Scotland, may by order provide that a specified event or situation is to be treated as falling, or as not falling, within the definition, and may amend the list in section 1(2) to add or remove a kind of disruption. Section 17(2) requires a draft of such an order to be approved by both Houses of Parliament.

The second test in section 2(2)

Meeting the definition is not the end of the question. Section 2(2) says the duties in section 2(1) apply to a responder in relation to an emergency only if the emergency would be likely seriously to obstruct the responder in the performance of its functions, or if the responder would be likely to consider it necessary or desirable to take action and would be unable to take that action without changing the deployment of resources or acquiring additional resources.

So an event can be an emergency in law without triggering duties for every Category 1 responder. A flood that closes one road may not seriously obstruct a port health authority. The seven duties bite where the threshold in section 2(2) is crossed.

A separate definition for emergency powers

Part 2 of the Act, which deals with emergency powers, has its own definition in section 19. It mirrors section 1 but refers to serious damage to human welfare or the environment "in the United Kingdom or in a Part or region", rather than "in a place in the United Kingdom". The lists of harms in section 19(2) and (3) are the same as those in section 1. The scale of the damage threatened is what separates a local emergency from one that could justify emergency regulations.