Business Resilience & Continuity
Have you thought about resilience and continuity planning for your business?
Unplanned incidents and emergencies can happen at any time. Even rising costs can be a real challenge. By identifying where your vulnerabilities are and understanding how to respond, you will be better placed to navigate challenges, and to quickly return to normal operations with minimal impact if an incident does happen. To support you with this, we have gathered below resources to help you find the information that you need.
Did you know?
20% of businesses will suffer a fire, flood, power failures, terrorism, hardware or software disaster, and of those without a business continuity plan:
%
will fail in just over a year
%
will not even reopen
%
that experience a significant data loss are out of business within five years
%
of businesses that suffer total loss of a mission critical facility and do not have business continuity plans go out of business within 2 years
Help to prepare your business continuity plan
Flooding
Oxfordshire County Council has produced the Oxfordshire Flood Toolkit to support businesses and residents with understanding their flood risk, how to be prepared, the different types of flooding, and what to do if a flood happens. The Environment Agency provides information relating to flood risks and flood alerts and a flood forecast for the next 5 days. You can sign up to free flood warnings from the Environment Agency to be alerted when your home or business is at risk, by email, phone or text. Alternatively, you can call Floodline on 0345 988 1188 to register. If your business has more than one premises, you can get flood warnings for multiple sites by registering with the Targeted Flood Warning Service. You can monitor here the levels of the county’s rivers and streams and find rainfall statistics. The Met Office issues weather warnings when severe weather is expected. The National Flood Forum also has lots of advice and resources to help you be prepared.
Get your business ready for winter
Preparing for winter can mean more than being ready for floods, particularly with the increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events. The Met Office issues weather warnings when cold weather is expected and you can sign up to UKHSA Cold Weather Health Alerts for information and advice to help you to prepare. Thames Water has lots of tips to help you Get Your Business Ready for Winter and to avoid burst pipes and water leaks. If you or staff are on the road, the Met Office has these simple steps to check your vehicles are winter ready. If you are working at home, the Low Carbon Hub has a Warmer Winter Checklist with tips on managing fuel bills and keeping warm, and advice on who to contact if you or employees need support. Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) ‘Powertrack’ lists any current power outages in the SSEN area and you can download and register on the Powertrack app to receive automatic updates to your phone.
Cyber Crime
32% of all UK businesses reported a cyber-attack in the past 12 months. There are simple steps that you can take to help keep your business safe online. Here are some resources that can help:
Small Business Guide: Cyber Security
Free Small Business Cyber Action Plan
Small Business Guide: Response & Recovery
Check your existing cyber security
Report a cyber incident
24/7 live cyber reporting for businesses.
Free online training for SMEs
Get confident with what cyber security means for you and learn some actionable steps you can take to stay safe online.
South-East Cyber Resilience Centre (SERC)
Helping organisations avoid Fraud and Cyber Crime with cyber security guidance and resources.
Fire safety
Starting October 10th 2024, Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service will only respond to automatic fire alarm activations where a building is deemed to be a high-risk building, or where a fire has been confirmed or there are signs of fire. If your building is not considered to be high risk, such as an office, shop, or warehouse, you may need to update your fire risk assessment and improve your safety measures. Learn more about this policy change, your responsibilities regarding fire safety, and fire safety generally.
Terrorism & Martyn’s Law
New legislation included in the King’s Speech in July 2024, known as the Protect Duty or ‘Martyn’s Law’, aims to ensure stronger protection for the public at events and will require venues across the UK to take steps to protect the public from harm. When enacted, the law will apply to anyone responsible for venues and publicly accessible locations used for purposes such as entertainment and leisure, retail, food and drink, museums and galleries, sports grounds, public areas of local and central Government buildings (e.g., town halls), visitor attractions, temporary events, Places of Worship, health, and education. While no official date has been set for the legislation to take effect, businesses are encouraged to begin preparing and to implement their own security measures. To learn more about Martyn’s Law and its potential impact on your organisation at ProtectUK.
Would you like to hear more about these topics?
You can stay informed by signing up below to receive occasional text messages with information and advice, keeping an eye on this webpage and if you use LinkedIn, by following OxLEP Business.
Sign up for this service
If you would like to sign up for this service to receive text messages with information and advice for your business, please click below to fill in the simple sign-up form.
Withdrawing from this service
If you are in receipt of this service, but would like to opt out, you can do so by completing the opt-out form.
As this is a new scheme, if you have suggestions for what information you would like to hear about, do please let us know: [email protected]
If you have stories of how your business has shown resilience or used continuity planning that you would be happy for us to share, please do also get in touch, we would love to hear.
This page is part of a new pilot service called the CODE RED – Oxfordshire Business Resilience Scheme, being delivered by OxLEP Business in partnership with the Berkshire Growth Hub, Buckinghamshire Business First and Thames Valley Local Resilience Forum and local resilience teams. The pilot is funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) Innovation Fund 2023/2024, until April 2025
Find out more
This short two-minute video from the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) explains what business continuity means and why it is important.
Useful links:
Oxfordshire County Council Resilience Page
Advice on how to individuals, communities and business prepare for emergencies.
Thames Valley Resilience Forum
The Thames Valley Local Resilience Forum supports partner agencies to prepare, respond to and recover from emergencies.
Q&A
I am new to business resilience and continuity, what do they mean?
The Business Continuity Institute define continuity as “having a plan to deal with difficult situations, so your organisation can continue to function with as little disruption as possible”. Resilience is defined by the International Standards Organisation as “the ability to absorb and adapt in a changing environment”.
What is a business continuity plan?
A document that sets out step-by-step what actions should be taken before events to prevent risks to your business, and also during and after events, so that you can continue to operate and recover with minimum disruption.
Is Business Resilience the same as Climate Change Adaptation?
The climate is changing, and could mean physical risks for your business, as well as for your business processes, and the health and wellbeing of your employees. Being ready means understanding the vulnerabilities so that you can reduce any risks and your business can continue to operate and grow.
Apart from SMS messages, what support is available to help me in my business?
The Business Continuity Institute has a wealth of resources online, some available free by registering for a web account. See also the links to resources above. If you would like more information, to talk with an advisor or support with drafting a plan for your business, please email [email protected].
What will happen after the pilot?
Continuation after April 2025 is subject to funding.
How will my information be stored and used?
In line with OxLEP’s Privacy Policy, we will only process your details within this pilot for the purposes of sending you SMS messages and where we are required to do so by our funders. After the pilot ends, we will not store your information for any longer than the minimum period necessary, unless you have previously agreed for us to do so. You can opt out from receiving SMS messages at any time by emailing [email protected].
