Civil Defence and Emergency Planning

Civil defence and emergency planning are closely linked functions which have been controlled by central government but have relied on local authorities carrying out duties under instruction from central government.

From the 18th century the main focus was on civil defence which fell to the militia and the Lord Lieutenants of the counties.[1] Until the Emergency Powers Act 1920 there was little separate provision for civil emergencies. The 1920 Act identified civil emergencies as ‘interfering with the supply and distribution of food, water, fuel or light or with the means of locomotion, to deprive the community…of the means of life’[2]

This act gave authority to the Crown to proclaim a state of emergency and then to empower central government departments and ‘any other persons’ to take necessary action.[3] The 1920 act remained largely in force until 2004. It was used to deal with difficulties arising from industrial disputes such as the seamen’s strike in 1966 and the dock workers strike in 1970.[4]

The Civil Defence Act 1939 placed obligations on local authorities to create air-raid shelters, granting sweeping powers regarding the acquisition of land for this purpose and relaxing building construction regulations. It also gave them the duty of making buildings available for receiving casualties and making arrangements for billeting and evacuations.[5]

The Civil Defence Act 1948 gave local authorities responsibilities for carrying out decisions of Ministers on civil defence matters such as organising civil defence forces and services, training them, and providing equipment and offices.[6] Both these Acts placed the decision-making with Ministers, the local authority function being primarily to follow and implement these decisions and the resulting regulations issued by central government.

The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 transferred some responsibilities to regional and islands councils and some to district and islands councils.[7] The details were clarified in the Civil Defence (Planning) (Scotland) Regulations 1975 which gave the responsibilities to regional and islands councils.[8] This required the councils to make contingency plans to prepare for the possibility of hostilities including planning for gathering intelligence, training staff, making preparations for the disposal of human remains, preventing disease, providing emergency feeding centres and other services, and testing these plans. These regulations were updated in 1983.[9] Ten years later the Civil Defence (General Local Authority Functions) (Scotland) Regulations 1993 further updated this.[10] However, as the emphasis was on civil defence during the Cold War, some local authorities resisted this as they considered that it encouraged preparation for nuclear war. In the early 1960s and again in the 1980s there were instances of local authorities refusing to store equipment and provide shelters for civil defence purposes.

The development of local authority planning for emergencies not connected to civil defence was not provided for in legislation until the Civil Protection in Peacetime Act 1986. This enabled local authorities to ‘use their civil defence resources in connection with emergencies and disasters unconnected with any form of hostile attack by a foreign power’[11]

The Civil Defence (Scotland) Regulations 2001 and other statutory instruments provided for police and fire service involvement in grants and emergency planning.[12]

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 consolidated all these powers and responsibilities and repealed previous emergency powers and civil defence legislation.[13] Councils along with the police, fire services, ambulance services, health boards and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency were identified as Category 1 responders, required to act on the authority of an Order from Scottish Ministers. Emergencies were defined to include threats to the environment as well as to people. Powers to declare an emergency were consolidated with central government.

Records relating to civil defence and civil contingencies may be found in the records of local councils, police, fire and rescue services, ambulance services and health boards, all of which are held either by local authority archives services or health board archives services. National Records of Scotland holds relevant Scottish Government records in its Scottish Home and Health collection (reference code HH), communications with local authorities in its Association of County Councils collection (reference code CO), and records relating to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (reference code DD).