The Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations 2019

Reviewing and testing of emergency plans

12.—(1) Each operator or local authority who has prepared an emergency plan pursuant to regulation 10 or 11, as the case may be, must, at suitable intervals not exceeding 3 years unless otherwise agreed by the regulator—

(a) review and where necessary revise the plan for which they are responsible; and

(b) test that plan, taking reasonable steps to arrange for all those with a role in the plan to participate in the test to the extent necessary to ensure that the plan is effective.

(2) The test required by paragraph (1)(b) need not extend to testing a local authority’s emergency plan so far as it extends to the outline planning zone, unless—

(a) a test is necessary in order to review or revise the plan, as required under paragraph (1)(a); or

(b) the regulator requires a test.

(3) The regulator may only agree that the review and test required under paragraph (1) may take place after the expiry of a three year period if—

(a) the operator or local authority, as the case may be, has sent a written request for such an extension of time to the regulator; and

(b) the written request is sufficient to demonstrate that the circumstances of the request are reasonable and exceptional.

(4) A review required under paragraph (1) must take into account—

(a) changes occurring in the work with ionising radiation to which the plan relates;

(b) changes within the emergency services concerned;

(c) new knowledge or guidance, whether technical or otherwise, concerning the response to radiation emergencies;

(d) any material change to the assessment on which the plan was based since it was last reviewed or revised;

(e) any relevant information derived from an assessment of or a report about the effectiveness of an emergency plan required by regulation 17(6); and

(f) any relevant information derived from a report into the outcome of an earlier test as required by paragraph (8).

(5) In determining how the off-site emergency plan is to be tested, the local authority must cooperate with—

(a) the operator; and

(b) any Category 1 responders in whose area the premises to which the emergency plan relates is situated.

(6) A review or test of the plan required by this regulation must take into account any lessons learned from—

(a) past emergency exposure situations, whether at the operator’s premises or not; and

(b) the United Kingdom’s participation in emergency exercises at national and international level.

(7) The test of the plan required by paragraph (1)(b) must be adequate to test the ability to implement the plan in question, but the operator or the local authority, as the case may be, may for the purpose of determining the extent of that test, bear in mind—

(a) the length of time since the last test of the plan;

(b) the extent of the testing undertaken on the last occasion;

(c) any activation of the plan as a response to a radiation emergency since the last test; and

(d) any revisions of the plan made by the review required under paragraph (1)(a).

(8) After completion of the test required by paragraph (1)(b), each operator or local authority, as the case may be, must prepare a report on the outcome of the test within 3 months of the conclusion of the test.

(9) A report made under paragraph (8) must be sent to the regulator within 28 days of its completion.

(10) Where a report made under paragraph (8) was made by the operator, the operator must send it to the local authority within 28 days of its preparation, and where such a report was made by the local authority, the local authority must send it to the operator within 28 days of its completion.