The Home Office planned and co-ordinated the National Counter-Terrorism Exercise, working closely with partners from:
- British Transport Police
- Metropolitan Police
- North Yorkshire Police
- Counter Terrorism Policing North-East
- London Fire Brigade
- London Ambulance Service
- North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and Yorkshire Ambulance Service
Exercise Spring Resolve aimed to test the collective emergency services response to a series of no-notice violent attacks across multiple regions, effective multi-agency command and control arrangements to stop the attacks, save lives and undertake effective and timely consequence management and recovery.
The exercise formed part of the regular counter-terrorism testing and exercising programme which takes place across the UK. Agencies all set clear exercise objectives that were to be tested, and many of those objectives were linked to the recommendations made following the Manchester Arena Inquiry – Volume 2.
Security Minister, Tom Tugendhat, said:
The first duty of government is to protect the British people. Exercises like Spring Resolve are critical to ensure all agencies and departments are prepared for any type of attack.
I would like to thank all our frontline services for their diligent and brave work to protect and safeguard our country and people in the face of complex threats.
The exercise scenario involved a mixture of live and notional play and included multiple attacks in rapid succession in London, designed to test fast and effective multi-agency response, communication and co-ordination. Attack locations included the transport network and other publicly accessible locations.
The scenario incorporated a further no-notice attack at a publicly accessible location close to York city centre on the second day, again designed to test and exercise effective multi-agency response and recovery arrangements.
The exercise tested communication flows from attack scenes, through strategic command centres and directly into central government, with COBR meetings being held on both days, government Ministers and senior officials also being exercised.
This exercise had been planned for more than a year and has taken place a few weeks after the conclusion of the Manchester Arena Inquiry. Volume 2 of this Inquiry recommended emergency responders enhance their interoperability for better effectiveness, and this aim was placed at the heart of Spring Resolve.
The exercise demonstrated how to bring together available information, reconcile potentially differing priorities and make effective decisions together.
Story/Image: gov.uk
