Government Responsibilities for Emergency Services

Current legislation and policies for emergency services

The chemical incidents mainly occur due to some technological incidents, conflicts, natural disasters, terrorists, etc, and thus harm human health as well as the environment.

Policing and Crime Act 2017

This is one of the well-known legislation for the emergency services where the role of the Police is highly imperative. This is the act of parliament which was formed in the United Kingdom. As per this act, the main responsibility of the police in the emergency services is to investigate the incident scene thoroughly for evidence. Besides this, they are also responsible for providing protection to victims until specialized forces arrive (Neville and et.al.,2018).

Fire and Service Rescue Act 2004

This is another legislation which came into force in 2004 and is an act of parliament within the UK. This legislation applies to Great Britain, along with its provisions applying to England as well as Wales. This act mainly clarifies as well as defines the duties as well as powers of the fire authorities during emergency services. According to this act, the fire authority in the UK is mainly responsible for promoting fire safety during chemical incidents and protecting the people from extreme fire which emerges due to chemicals (Seba and et.al.,2019). Ask for assignment writing help from our experts!

Health Act 2006

This is one of the most important legislation being established in the UK and thus applies to the various healthcare facilities, including the NHS. The provision of this act applies to the services of the NHS and thus provides various administrative services to people. The major responsibility of the NHS, as per this act, is to perform the emergency healthcare functions for victims in a chemical incident and is bound to provide urgent health services (Nikolai, Njoroge and Madey, 2018).

Civil Contingencies Act 2004

This act describes the obligation that needs to be beard by organization for certain emergency services.. It gives power to the government to organize events for the emergence of large-scale emergencies (Civil Contingencies Act 2004, 2020). This is responsible for risk assessment and emergency preparation as well. In part 1, two categories are here. In category 1, risk assessment is done, and emergency planning is made. Information is shared. In category 2, health safety executives work to respond to these emergencies. Part 2 reflects developments over a period of time to deal with emergencies. This is the act of parliament in the UK and thus makes the provisions for military as well as civil agents during any contingency or emergency. The provision of this law mainly applies to Great Britain, covering England and Wales. According to this act, the primary responsibility of military and commanders is to assist the victims in rescue and provide emergency treatment to the casualties. Besides this, they are responsible for safeguarding the public health suffering from the severe effects of a chemical incident (Sylves, 2019).

Responsibilities in emergency incidents

JESIP, that is, Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles, was mainly developed for improving as well as standardizing ambulance and police services (Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles, 2020). They are responsible for looking for any evidence at the site and providing protection as well as relief to the victims. Apart from this, they are responsible for maintaining constant communication with the rescue team operating in the unknown territories during adverse situations like chemical incidents (Li and et.al.,2019).

Its main role is to work in collocations; they have to give commands, and commanders make the team ready to implement functions to resolve emergencies. Communication is another responsibility where all joint teams work together and share information so that the correct resources can be used in the right place to deal with an emergency. Sharing of situational awareness is another responsibility of authorities. They have to make other departments aware of the level of risk and an accurate way to deal with it.,

Another entity which is responsible for quickly responding to emergency incidents is the fire authorities. It is obvious that one of the leading factors giving rise to chemical incidents is the release of hazardous substances, and thus lead to the explosion as well as fire in surrounding areas. Here, the fire as well as the rescuer team also work to respond quickly in an emergency. The major and foremost responsibility of the fire authority is to rescue people from fire and fight severe explosions due to fire. Along with this, they are also bound to provide emergency service to victims and their families injured in the chemical incident (Fantacci and et.al.,2016).

Ambulance services are another main entity which plays a vital role during emergency services and are responsible for providing services to the victim (Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles, 2020). One of the major and most important responsibilities of ambulance services is to provide hospitalize services to people and their families to the healthcare facilities and hospitals, and provide immediate services. Besides this, along with transporting them safely to hospitals, the team of ambulance services is required to provide first aid to deal with victims having cardiac arrest, crush injury, etc. Another main responsibility of an ambulance is to provide 24-hour assistance as well as medical products like beds, oxygen to casualties injured in a chemical incident (Woods and et.al.,2017).

Role of public service agencies in major incidents

The public service agencies play an important role in responding to severe major incidents and providing relief to the casualties, along with their families. There are various public agencies which are involved during the occurrence of emergency situations like chemical incidents, and their roles are highly defined and well-structured (Neville and et.al.,2018). 

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Fire services

This is one of the first and foremost agencies which is involved in responding to the major incidents in JESIP. Their role is highly crucial as well as commanding. One of the most remarkable and significant roles of fire services in chemical incidents is to provide relief from fire and thus save people from its effects. They play the role of lifesaver where they, after arriving at the site, firstly extinguish the fire and provide emergency services to the victims (Seba and et.al.,2019).

Police services

This is the second public agency which works in emergency situations in JESIP and plays a highly essential role in providing care and facilities to casualties along with their families. The primary role which this agency plays during a major incident is facilitating the movement of the various services and supplies to victims. They are responsible for clearing the traffic while transporting the victim to the hospital and other care services.

Ambulance services

This is one of the most widely known as well as most important public agencies which operates during the occurrence of a chemical incident. Here, the main role of the ambulance is to provide immediate health facilities to victims and their families and safely take them to the hospitals. They are responsible for providing the clinical interventions to ill patients as well as transporting them to the emergency unit. Besides this, another role of ambulance services is to communicate with the hospital authorities to make the necessary arrangements for treatment before the patient arrives at the hospital (Nikolai, Njoroge and Madey, 2018).

Government (local authority)

This is another public agency which is responsible for taking quick action during the emergence of incidents. The main role of the UK government in emergency situations is to provide the proper framework as well as resources to the hospitals for treating casualties injured during a chemical incident. Besides this, they are mainly responsible for providing financial services to the victim and their families for effective treatment and care. Along with this, this agency is also responsible for managing the whole crisis and constantly working with other agencies for any updates (Sylves, 2019).

Planning steps while responding to a major incident

Planning

This is the foremost step in planning for a major incident like a chemical incident. This mainly involves identifying the incident and analyzing it. The main importance of this stage is that it helps the agencies as well as organizations to handle situations appropriately (Li and et.al.,2019). The steps of planning are described below:

Identification

This is another stage in which the agencies identify the actual and real incident, for example chemical incident. The main importance of this stage is that it allows the team to classify the incident and have the proper information about details (Fantacci and et.al.,2016). First, authorities need to identify the emergency issue, and accordingly, they have to take immediate action on it.

Investigation

This is the third stage in which the agencies investigate as well as identify the various aspects related to the incident. Here, the various agencies, like the police, investigate any issue and prepare documentation regarding any evidence for a chemical incident. The major importance as well as benefit of this stage is that it helps the planning team to carry out the incident in an effective manner and helps them to look for each and every detail to draw the conclusion (Neville and et.al.,2018). Once the issue is identified, then authorities have to investigate the root cause of this emergency event so that the rescue team can be prepared accordingly.

Recovery

This is the fourth stage in planning for the incident in JESIP, where the agencies, after proper investigation, draw a result and thus provide recovery and care to the casualties and their families. In this stage, multi-agencies like the fire authority, police, and ambulance play the major role, and the importance of this stage is that it helps the agencies to make a proper contingency plan for recovery. This stage helps the agencies to implement the various care facilities and provide timely treatment to casualties (Woods and et.al.,2017). One entire location is investigated, then the team can make a recovery plan and can implement the entire plan. This would help in the speedy recovery of the situation. 

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Follow up

This is the last stage, followed by the recovery stage, in which, after returning to normal, follow-up is taken from the people involved in the incident. The major importance of this stage is that it helps the agencies to know whether their work has been successful or not and whether the whole process was conducted timely and effective or not (Seba and et.al.,2019). This will help in avoiding the occurrence of such kind of emergency issues in the near future.

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