Australian Capital Territory

Emergencies (ESA Incident Notification Procedure) Commissioner’s Guidelines 2011* 

Notifiable Instrument NI2011 – 607

made under the

Emergencies Act 2004, s 11 (Commissioner may make guidelines).

1.	Name of Instrument

This instrument is the Emergencies (ESA Incident Notification Procedure) Commissioner’s Guidelines 2011.

2.	Commencement

This instrument commences on the day after it is notified. 

3.	Commissioner’s Guidelines

I make the Commissioner’s Guidelines relating to the ESA Incident Notification Procedure at Schedule 1 to this instrument.

4.	Revocation

Not applicable 

Mark Crosweller AFSM FAIM
Emergency Services Commissioner
11 October 2011

Schedule 1

ACT EMERGENCY SERVICES AGENCY

COMMISSIONER’S GUIDELINES

relating to

the ESA Incident Notification Procedure

September 2011

_____________________________________________________________________

1.	PURPOSE

To provide Commissioner’s guidelines for the ESA Incident Notification Procedure.

These guidelines are made in accordance with the Emergencies Act 2004.  

2.	BACKGROUND

a.	Under the Emergencies Act 2004, the ESA Commissioner has the responsibility to emphasise the importance of communicating information, advice and warnings to the community during an emergency.

3.	GUIDING PRINCIPLES

3.1	Notification of incidents

b.	Notification of incidents involving a response from the ESA should be carried out as set out below.

c.	The Commissioner may nominate a position / positions within the ESA to undertake the functions of this guideline.

3.2	Notification of incidents arrangements

a.	The ESA Commissioner has nominated the following types of incidents confirmed by the first arriving resource or by multiple emergency triple zero (000) / 132 500 calls that the ESA Public Information Coordinator must be notified about:
- Major motor vehicle accident involving trapped persons and/or serious injury;
- Vertical rescue;
- Structure fire;
- Grass fire;
- Bushfire;
- Hazardous material spill;
- Storm or flood damage;
- Evacuations;
- Incident involving multiple casualities;
- Incident directly impacting a large number of people;
- Incident known or likely to be threat to community safety;
- Incident involving a VIP or dignitary; and
- Incident that has or is likely to attract media interest.

3.3	Timing of confirmation

a.	The notification of incidents as listed above must be made by the Triple Zero ‘000’ Communication Centre shift manager/duty officer within two minutes of an emergency incident confirmation to the ESA Communications Centre. 

Notifications to the ESA Public Information Coordinator between 0600 and 2200 can be made via phone call or SMS.  Notifications between 2200 and 0600 must be made via phone call.

3.4	Chief Officers standards and protocols

a.	The Chief Officers of the emergency services will determine standards and protocols for their service to give effect to the requirements set out in 3.2 and 3.3 above.

3.5	Information dissemination channels

b.	 The ESA Public Information Coordinator will publish appropriate information from incident notifications through media including the ESA website (www.esa.act.gov.au), ESA Twitter account (@ACT_ESA), ESA Facebook account (ACTEmergencyServicesAgency), Canberra Connect Call Centre (132281) and ACT local media outlets.
 
Dictionary:

Note 1	The Emergencies Act 2004 and the Legislation Act 2001 contain definitions and other provisions relevant to this Guideline.