What price emergency planning? local authority civil protection in the UK

The Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) will have far-reaching effects on g overnment departments and on local government. Terms such as 'best value', 'bench-marking' and 'national performance standards' are now being used to describe the way in which local authority accountability and efficiency are to be tackled and improved. The local authorities' emergency planning func tion is no exception to this process. This article explores the present sta tus of local authority emergency planning and examines the suggestions curr ently being made for its future structure and funding.