Agencies test their emergency plans in the Highlands and Islands

Issued by Northern Constabulary

AGENCIES in the Highlands and Islands have been testing their multi-agency plans for severe weather incidents.

The Highlands and Islands Strategic Coordinating Group (HISCG) held an exercise yesterday (Exercise Boreas), which tested the emergency response structures that would be put in place in the event of an area wide extreme weather emergency occurring across the whole of the Highlands and Islands.  

The event consisted of a scenario of severe weather resulting in numerous serious incidents across the region and how the blue light emergency services, Local Authorities, utility providers and the Scottish Government would all work together to ensure that the response is well managed and well coordinated.   Multi agency meetings and coordination centres were established in Fort William, Stornoway, Kirkwall and Lerwick, whilst the Northern Constabulary Force Operations Room, at Police HQ in Inverness, provided  the central administration and coordination of information.   

The exercise included the management of a series of major incidents occurring as a consequence of the weather and included events as diverse as a major coach crash,  a significant oil and gas spillage, serious flooding, coastal erosion and communications failures, as well as the welfare and management of  large numbers of  casualties across the Highland and Island communities.  The exercise was a 'table top' event that invoked local response groups, as well as meetings of the full HISCG board consisting of the Chief Executives and Chief Officers of the fourteen main public sector organisations in the Highlands and Islands, as well as representation from the Procurator Fiscals office, the Armed Forces, the Scottish Government and the Voluntary Sector.

Ian Latimer, the Exercise Director, Chair of the HISCG and Chief Constable Northern Constabulary commented on the success of the exercise. He said: "The Highlands and Islands Strategic Coordinating group convened Exercise Boreas to ensure that the multi-agency emergency response structures across the Highlands and Islands are fit for purpose and capable of dealing with a significant major emergency.  Recent large scale disaters across the the world have demonstrated the need for Governments, public sector organisations, emergency services, the military and the local communities to work together to ensure that the consequences of  these events are minimised and that our Highland communties would be able to get back to normal within a reasonable timeframe.  Significant lessons have been learned from this exercise which will now be fed back into our plans to ensure our key agencies are well prepared and that the Highlands and Islands remain one of the safest places to live and work in the world." 

Chief Executive of Highland Council and Vice Chair of HISCG, Alistair Dodds added: "This very successful exercise demonstrates the excellent working relationship between partner agencies across the region which strengthens our resilience in dealing with any major emergency."