Major Incident Plan

Introduction

This Plan will be used by UCL Greek and Latin staff to support the recovery of the department, following an incident. There are three types of incident: 'Incident', 'Serious Incident' and 'Major Incident':

• An Incident is an event that disrupts the normal course of business operations (in the local area) for a short length of time.
• A Major Incident is one which is outside normal operational and management controls and which is likely to compromise the operational capabilities of the Faculty and require evacuation/partial evacuation.

• A Serious Incident is a UCL-wide event which seriously affects UCL staff, students and normal business operations. UCL's Major Incident Team will coordinate the response.

   

  Purpose of the MIP

  The purpose of the MIP is to:

• ensure the safety of students, staff and others;
• maintain operational activity;

• protect the building and its contents.

   

  It is not possible to give a definitive list of incidents which would trigger this major incident plan, as the impact of an incident will depend on the timing and severity of the incident. Any of the following examples, however, would typically be regarded as a major incident:

   

• bomb threat;
• gun attack;
• power loss;
• extreme weather: snow/ice/floods;
• building fire;
• flood;
• infectious disease, e.g. legionnaires disease or swine 'flu;
• air crash;
• breakdown of London/UK transport system;

• chemical leak.

   

In the case of infectious disease (with the greatest current risk being that of a swine 'flu pandemic), the major incident scenario is likely to be different: it may be that many staff will be off sick for a protracted period and that normal business will need to be carried out with a greatly reduced workforce. It is also possible that the Government may request schools and universities to close for a period of time to avoid spreading infection.

All Greek and Latin staff are able to work from home and should remind themselves, from time to time, how to gain remote access to UCL systems.

Please note that there may be a minor incident lasting for part of, or a whole day. In this case, staff should switch on mobile telephones although the emergency telephone cascade will not be activated.

The first priority is to ensure the safety of all students and staff. If students or staff should be alerted to a major incident affecting central London or the London transport system, they should not attempt to travel to UCL but to stay at home. If anyone has already set off, s/he should return home. If s/he is unable to do so, then s/he should go to a safe place (library or café) and wait until the emergency situation passes. The Greek and Latin administrative team will email staff and students with information, if possible - if not, students and staff should check the UCL home webpage for information.

The Departmental Manager will email all students and staff on an annual basis to remind them of this procedure.

The UCL Emergency number is: 222.

If the emergency takes place during the teaching/working day, whilst students and staff are at UCL, and Gordon House and other UCL buildings need to be evacuated, all staff and students should congregate at The Brunswick Shopping Centre in Marchmont Street (nearest tube station: Russell Square). This is open at all times.

At all times, the first priority is to ensure the safety and welfare

of all students and staff affected by the incident.

The Brunswick Shopping Centre, Marchmont Street:

This comprises:

• Professor Gesine Manuwald (Head of Department);
• Professor Stephen Colvin (Deputy Head of Department);

• Robbie Macaulay (Departmental Manager).

   

Members of the UCL Greek and Latin Recovery team have a record of all staff personal contact details and will telephone them to notify them of the incident and the course of action (see above), using the following cascade. The Head of Department will also liaise with the Dean and/or Faculty manager.

Gesine Manuwald, Antony Markrinos, Stephen Colvin and and Robbie Macaulay should keep the telephone numbers of the staff they need to contact in an emergency under confidential cover at home, work, in address books and saved on mobile telephones. Communication is key to dealing with any incident.

N.B. Staff should be mindful of requirements, under the Data Protection Act, that home and mobile numbers are confidential, and only to be used in an emergency.

• All staff should ensure their own safety and that of others.
• All staff should ensure their personal details are up to date on MyView and inform the administrative team of any changes to contact details so that the contact list can be updated.

• All staff should strive to maintain normal operations, where possible.

   

  The Head of Department and Departmental Manager will be in communication with the Faculty and central UCL over insurance, building matters and potential relocation.

Although Gordon House does have a security desk and automated door access out of hours staff should still be vigilant about unknown individuals in the building (this also being the case as there are often other sections of UCL residing in the building on a rolling basis).

As such you should not let people you do not know into the building, especially if working out of hours, and, in case someone is in the building, you should lock your doors from the inside and call UCL security. If entering or exiting the building out-of-hours always make sure the door has closed propoerly behind you.