Emergency services

WQ.326/2022

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS BY DEPUTY M.R. LE HEGARAT OF ST. HELIER NORTH QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 28th NOVEMBER 2022 ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 5th DECEMBER 2022

Question

“In relation to the Emergency Services, will the Minister advise –

1. how many officers are trained in Gold, Silver and Bronze Major Incident Command;
2. how many officers are trained in Gold, Silver and Bronze Command in relation to C.B.R.N. (Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear); and
3. the last occasion on which the Emergency Services trained together in relation to C.B.R.N.?”

Answer

1. States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service:

• 3 officers are trained in Strategic (Gold) Command;

• 7 officers are trained in Tactical (Silver) Command and;

• 24 officers are trained in Operational (Bronze Command).

Note: Fire and Rescue Service professional doctrine does not differentiate between incidents and 'major incidents'. Operating in a major incident context is a core part of training.

States of Jersey Ambulance Service:

• Strategic Commanders – 3

• Tactical Commanders – 5

• Operational Commanders – 5

• NILO/Tactical Advisor – 3

States of Jersey Police:  

Aside from the Chief of Police who has a wide range of training and experience of Gold incident command in both the UK and Jersey, the SOJP has five other senior officers on their Gold standby rota. All five have experience of senior command in a variety of emergency and crime environments and one of the five has that experience from almost 30 years of policing in the UK.

Two of the remaining four have completed the MAGIC (Multi-Agency Gold Incident Commander) course in the UK and the other two are scheduled to complete the course in 2023.

The Silver rota in the SOJP is held / managed by the Five Duty Officers responsible for the five uniformed shifts. All have received a variety of JESIP (Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles) inputs and training and are familiar with the principles of such joint working, namely – Co- locate, Communicate, Co-ordinate, Joint Understanding of Risk and Shared Situational Awareness.

The five uniformed Inspectors are supported by the Community Policing Inspector and five Detective Inspectors all of whom have similar training and experience in the management of serious / major incidents and crime. All of the training delivered to these officers has been completed either through joint (other emergency services & partners) on-island inputs and exercising or indeed via on-line nationally accredited training packages. A full week of JESIP training was recently provided by local staff to a wide range of emergency service personnel / commanders in November.

All Sergeants in the SOJP (most likely to perform bronze roles in a major incident) are required to complete the annual nationally accredited on-line JESIP packages and many have attended the local JESIP training both recently and in the past. It is the intention of the Jersey Resilience Forum Training Sub-Group to maintain the annual training programme and a series of table-top and on the ground exercises.

Within the last month over fifty emergency services commanders and staff attended a two-day training and exercising event in respect to a marauding terrorist attack. The event used specialist input, training and exercising based on the JESIP principles and using the experience and recommendations from a wide variety of related incidents in other jurisdictions.

2. States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service:

No officers have attended a specific CBRN command course at any level.

Note: HAZMAT (Hazardous Materials) response, including chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive, whatever the cause, is part of the core role for the Fire and Rescue Service and so all command training is applicable to some degree.

States of Jersey Ambulance Service:

Tactical CBRN Commanders – 3 Radiation Protection Supervisor - 1

States of Jersey Police:

No SOJP staff are currently accredited in the CBRN command roles.

That said, the organisation uses nationally agreed plans and actions cards and has over time developed mutual aid contact and support in a wide variety of related areas. Local expertise is also available through the Jersey Fire and Rescue Service and the Jersey Ambulance Service.

Of particular note, is the work currently being undertaken in conjunction with the Emergency Planning Department in respect to the National CBRN centre, the Technical Response Force and the capabilities and support that they would be able to offer in the event of such an incident.

3. The last formal multiagency CBRN exercise was held in late October 2014, however, whilst the recent multi-agency training and exercise event was not specifically focussed on CBRN, various elements of the scenario and the multi-agency response to it were identical, focussing of course on joint working and the JESIP principles.

These elements of the exercise enabled a review of existing plans and reinforced relationships with a number of agencies in the UK that would be called to assist in the event of such an incident.

Ambulance National Incident Liaison Officer’s (NILO’s) regularly train with FRS HazMat Officers.