Advise & Exercise

Nationally recognised standards to define the skills, knowledge and performance expected of those working in resilience and emergency roles. 

The National Cyber Security Centre’s website provides advice and guidance, including on planning cyber exercises.

Exercise in a Box is a free resource which helps organisations find out how resilient they are to cyber attacks and practise their response.

This Organisational Resilience Guidance for UK Government Departments, Agencies and ALBs is intended to support UK Government departments, agencies and Arms-Length Bodies (ALBs) in developing their resilience functions to meet the challenges and commitments set out in the 2022 UK Government Resilience Framework.

The Rapid Response Collecting Guidance has been produced by The National Archives and a group of archive sector professionals. It is there to help support archive collections staff manage the collection of tributes and spontaneous memorials, left in response to unforeseen, sudden, unpredictable, or unprecedented events.

This report by the National Consortium for Societal Resilience explains the investments that individuals, communities, VCFSE organisations, local/central government, and businesses make in societal resilience. It describes how investing in societal resilience helps to lessen the impacts of a disruption.

The transport hazard summaries are concise fact sheets which explain the key natural hazards that pose a risk to transport and the impacts they can have across the road, rail, aviation and maritime sectors.

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly changing the way organisations approach resilience, crisis management, and emergency planning. From predicting risks and analysing complex data to improving coordination during disruptions, AI has the potential to strengthen decision-making when it matters most.

Our latest insight paper explores how organisations can responsibly harness AI to improve resilience while maintaining trust, accountability, and human judgement at the centre of decision-making.

Many organisations believe they’ve “covered” climate risk because they have flood response plans. But climate risk in 2026 is systemic. The third UK Climate Change Risk Assessment highlights increasing exposure to extreme heat, surface water flooding,  infrastructure stress, coastal change and water scarcity. Yet business continuity plans often remain hazard-specific. Find out 5 things you need to consider in this article by our Resilience Capability Lead Bhavick Valand.

In our latest insight paper, we explore how modelling real consequences, resource limits, and time pressure turns an exercise from an awareness session into a genuine test of both plans and people – and sets out the formats available, from matrix games to megagames, and how to start using them.

This paper by Professor Rowena Hill tackles a conceptual muddle in the resilience sector: the terms ‘societal resilience’ and ‘community resilience’ are increasingly used interchangeably, even though they mean different things – and that confusion undermines coordinated delivery of the UK’s whole-of-society approach to risk.

Resilience is no longer something organisations bolt on after the fact. It’s becoming a core part of how boards think about strategy, investment and growth – and this October, the UK Resilience Academy will be part of the conversation shaping that shift.

VCS Emergencies Partnership’s website provides a collection of exercises, which organisations can adapt and tailor to their needs.

Guidance on what local planners need to consider when developing flexible plans for evacuation and shelter.

JESIP Joint Doctrine (Edition Three) continues to provide a common way of working together to save lives and reduce harm in an emergency.

The National Risk Register outlines the most serious risks facing the United Kingdom.

JESIP’s (the Joint Emergency Service Interoperability Programme) Testing & Exercising page provides a range of resources including an Exercise Assurance Framework, an Umpire Evaluation Sheet and a Multi-Agency Debrief Template.

The Northern Ireland (NI) Civil Contingencies Framework sets out NI arrangements for effective Emergency Management.

The latest edition of the global guide to good practice in business continuity.

The Governemnt Communications Service (GCS) Emergency Planning Framework.

Guidance on part 1 of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, its associated regulations and non-statutory arrangements.

CONTEST is the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy. It’s based on 4 themes: prevent, pursue, protect and prepare.

The Managing Exercises Handbook is one of a series of handbooks on the Australian Disaster Resilience Knowledge Hub. It provides guidelines for the design, planning, conduct and evaluation of exercises.

JOL (Joint Organisational Learning) Online, which is hosted on Resilience Direct, is the national repository for interoperability, national resilience lessons and notable practice across the UK.

The Australian Disaster Resilience Knowledge Hub is an open-source platform that supports and informs policy, planning, decision making and contemporary good practice in disaster resilience.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is a federal agency which helps the United States respond to and recover from disasters.

The UK Government Resilience Framework sets out how we will strengthen the systems and capabilities that support our collective resilience.

This guide explores how to anticipate public behaviour in a crisis.

A practical ‘hands on’ manual to support civilian and military audiences in the use of Red Teaming techniques

Helping emergency planners ensure communities are central to emergency planning, response and recovery.

Preparing Scotland is a set of national guidance documents to assist Scotland in planning, responding and recovering from emergencies.

Preparing Scotland is a set of national guidance documents to assist Scotland in planning, responding and recovering from emergencies. The purpose of this guidance is to provide a practical tool to assist in the planning, delivery and evaluation of exercises.

PRIMER provides a framework for crisis communications.

The Central Government’s Concept of Operations sets out the UK arrangements for responding to and recovering from emergencies.

Guidance for staff of responder agencies, particularly senior officers or managers involved in emergency response and recovery preparations.

Guidance on part 1 of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, its associated regulations and non-statutory arrangements.

Guidance covering key issues relating to data protection and sharing in emergency planning, response and recovery.

The Civil Contingencies Act (2004) Regulations (2005) describe the extent of the duties imposed on organisations under the Act, and the manner in which those duties are to be performed.

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (CCA), and accompanying non-legislative measures, delivers a single framework for civil protection in the UK.