Emergency Planning for Heritage

A hazard is the potential occurrence of a natural or human-induced event that may, among other things, cause loss of life and damage to property and the environment. This could be a river that has the potential to flood a historic property.

A cyber-attack or arson may be active and intentional threats that a site or organisation faces. 

An impact is the consequence of a hazard acting upon an asset (for example, a historic property or collection) that is both exposed and vulnerable to the hazard. This could be water damage to furniture or paintings, or fire damage to a historic building fabric.

The likelihood and potential severity of impacts from an event determines the level of risk faced by a historic site or collection. This risk is influenced by vulnerability and exposure to a hazard or threat. For example, how likely is surface water flooding to impact a museum and, if a flood event did occur, how prepared is the museum and how severe would the impacts be?

To minimise or compensate for adverse impacts, human interventions such as mitigation measures can be put in place. This could include producing an emergency response plan or fire strategy or installing active fire protection measures at a historic property. 

These are the measures put in place to reduce the risks and impacts posed by different hazards. Mitigation measures might include:

• Undertaking a site risk assessment and hazard analysis. This should identify what hazards are present at a site, who and what might be impacted and how, what measures have already been implemented to control risks, what further action can be taken, and who needs to carry out the action and by when.
• The installation of fire detection systems and suppression systems, or other measures which make a property less vulnerable to the impact of fire.
• A fire risk assessment and production of a fire strategy for the property.
• The installation of appropriate property level flood resistance measures, such as flood doors or damp proofing.
• Ensuring that security procedures and measures are adequate, up-to-date and familiarised among site staff.
• Community and stakeholder engagement. This will help inform how impacts to a site affect stakeholders and the wider community and identify what support is available to help respond to and recover from an incident.

These are the planning activities undertaken to help reduce the likelihood of an incident occurring and ensure readiness to respond to an incident should one occur. Preparedness activities may include:

• Producing an emergency response plan and ensuring that training and testing of this plan is undertaken.
• Establishing a chain of command, emergency contact details and communication procedures for incident response. This will clarify leadership roles and responsibilities during an incident and ensure that the people needed to respond to an emergency can be contacted if needed.
• Routine housekeeping or management measures to mitigate hazards. This might include scheduling electrical installation and appliance inspections and daily checks to ensure fire doors are kept closed. Such activities can help reduce the likelihood of an incident happening in the first place.
• Ensuring insurance arrangements are in place where relevant. Make sure that the insurance policy in place is suitable for the property and that the relevant people understand the insurance procedures to follow should an incident occur.
• Identifying and engaging with support networks and sources of mutual aid. These might be other nearby historic properties or museums that could provide support during an incident. They may be able to provide staff and equipment to help with salvage operations, or a location to temporarily store salvaged items. It is useful to establish arrangements with such sites before an incident occurs and record them in the emergency response plan.

Further advice on writing an emergency response plan can be found here.

These are the decisions made, and immediate emergency response activities undertaken to effectively respond to an incident. Emergency response concentrates on the safety and protection of life, assets and the environment. Response activities may include:

• Locating and activating the site emergency response plan. At the beginning of an incident, an emergency response plan will help ensure that the correct people are contacted and informed of the situation. It will also help with deciding the initial steps to take during the difficult early stages of an emergency.
• Managing health and safety. This must be a priority, be it the health and safety of staff, volunteers or members of the public. It is important to ensure that people are not allowed to enter unsafe parts of a property. Working arrangements should be in place that provide sufficient periods of rest in-between supporting the response.
• Working with the emergency services. Support from the emergency services may be required, particularly where damage has occurred to a property and its collections, or if there is a risk to life. During a fire, salvage teams should be prepared to provide fire and rescue service personnel with the information they need to protect life and the property. Much of this information should be located within the site's emergency response plan.
• Working with other heritage organisations providing mutual aid or logistical support. Use the details recorded in the emergency response plan to contact nearby sites that can help support the response to an incident. The health and safety of any incoming personnel must also be managed.
• Communicating with the public and other stakeholders. Different stakeholders with an interest in the site's management and operations will likely need to be informed about the incident and the subsequent response. For incidents that impact day-to-day operations, members of the public will likely seek to find out what is happening. Use tools such as social media to provide appropriate updates. This can help keep members of the public away from the site and manage reputational impacts.
• Deciding when to move into recovery after the containment of an incident. It is wise to start thinking about recovery on day one of an incident. Returning to business-as-usual as soon as possible should be a priority. It is useful to identify when to start scaling up recovery activities whilst still in the response phase of an incident.

Further advice on responding to an emergency can be found here.

These are the plans and actions taken to help recover from an incident and return to business-as-usual as soon as possible. Recovery activities could include:

• Establishing short, medium and long-term recovery objectives. This should be done at the beginning of an incident to help ensure that recovery activities are considered throughout the response phase. These objectives should enable different aspects of day-to-day operations to be restored in a manageable way using the resources available.
• Enacting a business continuity plan. This plan should help identify the critical activities and resources required to keep the site running, and how to re-establish operations should they slow down or cease during an incident. Following a business continuity plan should help the site return to business-as-usual as soon as possible.
• Disaster recovery policies and actions relating specifically to the restoration of IT systems. Maintaining IT systems can be critical in helping a site or business continue its operations. These systems may be compromised during a cyber attack. It is important to know what actions to take should such an attack occur and how to recover IT systems as quickly as possible.
• Enacting insurance arrangements. Insurers should be contacted at the early stages of recovery and should ensure that the correct procedures set out are being followed.
• Focusing on the wellbeing of staff. It can take many days, weeks, months or even years to fully recovery from an incident and return to business-as-usual. The extra workload involved in recovery can quickly affect those involved, as can the emotional stress of seeing their place of work impacted by an incident.
• Debriefing an incident and applying lessons learnt. An incident debrief should be conducted after every event, regardless of the scale or impact. Everyone in the organisation involved in the response should be given the opportunity to provide feedback. This should include positive aspects and areas for improvement, as well as what measures could be put in place to reduce vulnerability and improve future responses.

The UK Government has produced a Business Continuity Management Toolkit specifically aimed at small and medium organisations in the commercial and voluntary sector.

The risk of flooding is likely to increase due to climate change and increased urban development. More homes are at risk from surface water, groundwater or sewer flooding, which is much harder to predict than river or coastal flooding.

Although most historic structures are inherently durable and relatively resistant to flooding, they are still vulnerable. Many of these buildings are not only at risk from flood damage but also from damage from inappropriate remedial works carried out by contractors who have little understanding of the historic fabric of buildings.

Read more advice on flood risk and historic buildings and check your flood risk.

Fire in a heritage site can have devastating consequences. It can spread rapidly, causing substantial damage in minutes, as well as additional damage from heat and smoke, and the water used to extinguish the blaze.

Fires caused by arson can also have a lasting negative impact on communities. In the case of historic buildings, the effects of arson are often compounded with the loss of cultural, social and artistic heritage.

Read further advice on fire safety for historic buildings and on arson risk reduction for heritage properties.

Heritage crime is any offence which harms the value of heritage assets such as listed buildings and their settings. Some heritage assets are protected by specific legislation to prevent damage or unlicensed alteration.

Crimes such as theft, criminal damage, arson and anti-social behaviour can harm heritage assets and interfere with the public's enjoyment and knowledge of their heritage.

Read further advice on heritage crime.

It is essential to address any spillage as soon as possible, knowing what immediate actions to take and how to safely clean up the substance. The level of response will be site specific, depend on the nature of the spill, and what the spilled substance is.

Further advice on dealing with spillages is given in Historic England's emergency response plan template Part 2: What to do in an emergency.

Heritage sites face their own challenges when considering the threat of terrorism and all sites should consider how they would respond to this threat. However, under the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, certain qualifying premises and events must put in place measures and procedures to reduce their vulnerability to the threat of terrorism.

Suspected terrorist activity can be reported via the ACT website. Always call 999 in an emergency. Preparedness for other security threats should also be considered, including theft, protests and civil unrest.

Read further advice on counter-terrorism security for heritage and on security for cultural venues.

Heritage sites use online services that may be vulnerable to a cyber attack. This may be a website, an online ticket sales platform, or a valuable digital archive. The financial impact of such an attack can be significant, as can its effect on the people who help run and care for the site.

Therefore, enacting good cyber security practice is important. The National Cyber Security Centre provides advice on how to prepare for and recover from a cyber attack, as well as how to report an incident or suspicious content.

If you are suffering a live cyber attack, you can also contact the Report Fraud 24-hour hotline on 0300 123 2040.