Plain-English explanations of the technical terms and legislation used in this document.
- Accountable Officer
- The senior person who holds overall responsibility for major-incident decisions and for authorising changes to the service during a disruption.
- Bank worker
- A member of staff who works flexible or ad-hoc shifts for the organisation rather than fixed contracted hours.
- Business continuity
- An organisation's ability to keep delivering its essential services, or restore them quickly, when something disrupts normal operations.
- Business continuity management system (BCMS)
- The overall set of plans, processes and responsibilities an organisation uses to manage business continuity.
- Business continuity plan (BCP)
- A practical document setting out how a particular service will keep running, or recover, during a specific type of disruption.
- Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
- A review that works out which activities matter most, how quickly they must be restored, and what they depend on.
- Care Quality Commission (CQC)
- The independent regulator of health and social care services in England.
- Civil Contingencies Act 2004
- The law that sets out how organisations must prepare for and respond to emergencies in the United Kingdom.
- Cold chain
- Keeping vaccines and certain medicines within a safe temperature range from delivery to use.
- Commissioner
- An organisation that arranges and pays for healthcare services on behalf of patients.
- Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH)
- The law for safely managing chemicals and other hazardous substances at work.
- Controlled drug
- A medicine whose supply, storage and records are tightly restricted by law because of its potential for misuse.
- Cyber-attack
- A deliberate attempt to damage, disrupt or gain unauthorised access to computer systems or data.
- Data breach
- An incident where personal information is lost, stolen, or accessed or shared without proper authority.
- Data Protection Act 2018
- The UK law that sits alongside the UK GDPR and governs how personal information must be handled.
- Data Protection Officer (DPO)
- The named person responsible for overseeing how an organisation protects and uses personal data.
- Decontamination
- The combined process of cleaning, disinfecting and, where needed, sterilising equipment so it is safe to reuse.
- Duty of Candour
- The legal duty to be open and honest with a person and their family when something goes wrong with their care.
- Electronic patient record (EPR)
- The digital record holding a patient's clinical information, used in place of paper notes.
- Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR)
- The arrangements health organisations use to plan for, respond to and recover from emergencies and major incidents.
- Grab-pack
- A ready-prepared pack of key documents and contacts that can be picked up and used immediately in an emergency.
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
- The main law setting out employers' duties to protect the health and safety of staff and others.
- Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
- The national body responsible for regulating and enforcing workplace health and safety.
- Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014
- The regulations setting out the fundamental standards that registered care providers must meet.
- Incident Coordination Group
- The team brought together to manage and direct the response to a disruptive incident.
- Infection prevention and control (IPC)
- The measures used to stop infection spreading between patients, staff and visitors.
- Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
- The UK regulator that upholds information rights and enforces data-protection law.
- Invocation
- The formal decision to switch on a business continuity plan and start the emergency response.
- ISO 22301:2019
- An internationally recognised standard that sets out good practice for business continuity management.
- Local Resilience Forum
- A multi-agency partnership of local responders, such as emergency services and councils, that plans for emergencies in an area.
- Locum
- A clinician who stands in temporarily to cover for a regular member of staff.
- Loggist
- A person whose role during an incident is to keep an accurate, timed record of decisions and actions.
- Major incident
- A serious event whose consequences need special arrangements by one or more responding organisations.
- Maximum Tolerable Period of Disruption (MTPD)
- The longest a critical activity can be interrupted before the impact becomes unacceptable.
- Medical gases
- Gases such as oxygen used in clinical care, usually supplied through pipes or cylinders.
- Near miss
- An event that could have caused harm but did not, by chance or because it was caught in time.
- Personal protective equipment (PPE)
- Items such as gloves, aprons and masks worn to protect against harm or infection.
- Ransomware
- Malicious software that locks or encrypts an organisation's data until a ransom is paid.
- Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
- The maximum amount of data, measured as a period of time, an organisation can afford to lose in a disruption.
- Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
- The target time within which a critical function must be back up and running after a disruption.
- Registered Manager
- The person registered with the regulator as responsible for the day-to-day running of a service.
- Regulated activity
- A type of care or treatment the law requires a provider to register with the regulator to deliver.
- Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
- The law that places duties on responsible people to manage fire safety in non-domestic premises.
- Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR)
- The law requiring certain workplace injuries, diseases and dangerous events to be reported to the Health and Safety Executive.
- Risk register
- A managed list of the risks facing an organisation, with their likelihood, impact, owners and controls.
- Single assessment framework
- The structure the regulator uses to judge a service, built around quality statements and five key questions (safe, effective, caring, responsive, well-led).
- Sterile services
- The facility or service that cleans, disinfects and sterilises reusable medical equipment.
- Temperature excursion
- An occasion when stored medicines or vaccines go outside their safe temperature range.
- UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)
- The UK's main data-protection law governing how personal information is collected and used.
- UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
- The national body responsible for protecting the public from infectious diseases and other health threats.
- Uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
- A battery-backed device that keeps equipment running for a short time when mains power fails.