Business Continuity

The guidance in this section is intended as general information about planning for emergencies. It is not intended to replace detailed guidance and planning specific to your business.

The Civic Contingencies Act 2004 places a duty on local authorities to promote Business Continuity Management and where possible provide Business Continuity advice to commercial and voluntary organisations.

What is Business Continuity?

Business Continuity Management (BCM) is a management process that helps manage the risks to the smooth running of an organisation or a delivery of a service, ensuring it can continue to operate to the extent required in the event of disruption.

Another term commonly used is Disaster Recovery (DR) which is an agreed and planned method of recovering your critical ICT infrastructure in the event of a major disruption.

Why Business Continuity?

Without effective business continuity planning a natural or man made disaster could result in any one of the following:

• A complete failure of your business
• Loss of income
• Loss or reputation or loss of your customers
• Financial, legal and regulatory penalties
• Human resource issues
• An impact on insurance payments or premiums

Facts

• 80% of businesses affected by a major incident close within a month
• 90% of businesses that lose data from a disaster are forced to shut within 2 years
• 58% of UK organisations were disrupted by September 11th. Of those disrupted 12% were seriously affected
• Nearly 1 in 5 businesses suffer a major disruption every year.