Full Description
This book assesses critically the British approach to hazard management and emergency planning. It identifies the principal legal, organizational and cultural impediments to more effective hazard management and emergency planning, postulates explanations for the shortcomings in the British approach and examines a number of promising avenues for improving current practice.
It comprises 18 chapters written by experts with a wide range of practical experience in the many different aspects of the field. Many of the authors introduce international perspectives and comparisons. From it all, the editors conclude, sadly:
'The overall hazard and emergency management approach currently adopted in Britain appears to be inadequate and current standards of protection appear to be inefficient for the 1990s and beyond'
Contents
Preface * Section I: Introduction � The Mismanagement of Hazards * Section II: Emergency Planning and Management in Britain � The Role of the Home Office * Peacetime Emergency Planning in Britain � A Country Emergency Planning Officers' Society View * Britain at Risk: Accountability and Quality Control in Disaster Management * Managing Disaster: the Indirect Approach * Harnessing the Trained Volunteer * Section II: The Current Malaise * Section III: Explanatory Perspectives � Legal Responsibilities for Industrial Emergency Planning in the UK * Corporate Responsibility in an Age of Deregulation * The New Public Management: a Recipe for Disaster? * Disaster at Hillsborough Stadium: a Comparative Analysis * Section Summary III: Issues in Explaining Responses * Section IV: Hazard and Emergency Management Concepts for the Future � Foundations and Principles of Emergency Planning and Management * Enabling Effective Hazard Management by the Public * 'Them and Us': Emergency Planning and Response in a Social Perspective * Scenario Construction for Risk Communication in Emergency Planning: Six 'Golden Rules' * The National Poisons Unit: the Development of Electronic Databases and their Proposed Use for Chemical Disaster Management * Emergency Management in Australia: Concepts and Characteristics * Hazard Management and Safety Culture * Section Summary IV: Promising Conclusions * Section V: Conclusions � Improving Hazard Management and Emergency Planning * Appendix: Selected Major Accidents and Disasters Affecting Britain * Index
