Key announcements

We are carrying out site maintenance from 9:00am until 10:00am this morning. Some of our forms will be unavailable during this time and online payments may be unsuccessful. To find out more about the section 114 notice, visit our section 114 page

Is your business ready?

Making a plan

The free, government Business Continuity Management toolkit provides details on what your business continuity arrangements should contain and further advice on how to develop your plan.

A business continuity plan should include:

  • identifying who will lead on business continuity within your business
  • defining who does what, including who makes the decisions
  • identifying what parts of your business must be maintained to keep your business going
  • considering the types of disruption/risks your business could face
  • prioritising what functions will be reinstated first and what resources you will need, including staff, equipment, IT, premises, external suppliers

There may be a number of risks you may want to consider, including:

  • loss of key staff or skills, e.g. through sickness or severe weather events
  • loss of critical systems, e.g. ICT failure
  • denial of access, or damage to, facilities, e.g. loss of a building due to a power cut
  • loss of key resources, e.g. specialist supplies you depend on to deliver your business

The government booklet ‘Expect the unexpected’ explains the importance of creating simple but effective plans, helping business to build resilience against any disaster. It can be downloaded from the GOV.UK website.

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