Kingston Council is undertaking a comprehensive review of its business continuity plans following an incident involving a loss of water at Cumberland House in July. Lessons learned from this event are being incorporated into updated planning to enhance the council's resilience.
The Audit, Governance and Standards Committee received an update on the council's corporate risk register, which details eight strategic risks in the non-exempt papers and one in the exempt papers. Among these, the risk associated with Business Continuity - Loss of Key Building (Residential and Office)
was discussed in light of the Cumberland House incident.
The eight strategic risks detailed in the non-exempt papers are: Financial Sustainability, Recruitment and Retention, Civil Contingencies for Extreme Weather Events, Social Cohesion, Death/Serious Harm to Person within our Care, Business Continuity - Loss of Key Building (Residential), Business Continuity - Loss of Key Building (Office), and Artificial Intelligence Adoption.
Officers confirmed that a comprehensive review of the incident is underway, with recommendations and an action plan to be developed. While an exact timeline for the completion of these changes is not yet available, the aim is to ensure that by next summer, the council will be better prepared for similar events. The meeting information states that lessons learned is sort of happening at the moment so a comprehensive review and with the relevant services
following the water loss incident. It also mentions that An action plan will be developed. Some of those things have already been actioned where there are sort of quick wins and areas where we can immediately mitigate with service areas.
However, the specific lessons learned are not detailed.
Measures are in place to address the risk of 'Loss of Key Building (Residential and Office)' beyond the Cumberland House incident. For residential buildings, these include maintaining relevant policies and procedures, proactive maintenance of housing stock, an emergency shelter protocol, regular review of insurance policies, and compliance testing for fire and electrical safety. A desktop exercise to review the effectiveness of current policies and procedures in respect of building loss is also planned.
For office buildings, measures include maintaining policies and procedures for building and system operations, migration of IT systems to the Cloud, flexible working arrangements, regular review of insurance policies, and upgrades to building life-support systems. A Business Continuity Working Group is overseeing the corporate refresh of business continuity plans, and building resilience measures are being incorporated into refurbishment plans for the Main Guildhall. An incident response framework for corporate responses to business continuity incidents is also being developed, alongside new templates for business impact analysis and business continuity plans. Awareness of the Multi-Agency Flood plan is also being raised to support preparedness for flood risks to business continuity.
The council's corporate risk register and related papers can be found in the Public reports pack for the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee meeting.
