According to the Civil Contingencies Act (CCA, 2004), an emergency incident is when an event or situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare, and event or situation which threatens serious damage to the environment and war or terrorism which threatens serious damage to security.
In the Ambulance Service, incidents are graded as Category A Priority which is when an incident is considered to be immediately life-threatening, Category B which is when an incident is serious but is not life-threatening immediately and Category C which is when an incident is deemed neither serious nor life-threatening.
Inter-agency approaches and agreements are made so that category 1 responders (the emergency services) are legally bound to cooperate in an emergency with category 2 responders (utilities, transport, governments and health sectors). Inter-agency approaches and agreements are established at a local resilience forum which would be located within the boundaries of the police areas. The emergency services are required to attend every six months where they would cooperate in preparing for and how to respond to emergencies.
The majority of emergency service call centres staff work within the control room of one of the emergency services and deal with the calls from the public about emergency and non-emergency calls. Through careful listening and effect questioning, they can identify the needs of the caller and assess the urgency of the call.
Incident managers are responsible for the liaising with organisations such as voluntary agencies, local authorities and local transport companies. They also are responsible for the liaising of utility companies, environmental agency and other agencies whose services are required.
When emergency services are attending an incident, they follow their own service policy and procedures for example; the ambulance service has
