Our assessment of the risks – a summary
Using the process outlined above, our assessment of our risk priorities for 2023/24 are set out below. A detailed description of each of the risks can be found later in this document.
High priority risks
- wildfires
- fires in the home
- road traffic collisions
- extremes of temperature
- fires caused by alternative fuels in buildings
- mental health and safeguarding
- water rescues
- life threatening medical emergencies
- waste sites
- residential buildings within the scope of the Building Safety Act
- conversion of commercial and retail premises to residential
- care homes
- alternative fuel vehicle fires
Medium priority risks
- pandemics
- flooding
- storms
- unoccupied large retail and commercial property
- assistance to ambulance
- humanitarian crisis overseas
- vehicle fires
- ports and ships
- railways and trams
- pollution
- hospitals
- construction sites
- heritage buildings
- prisons and secure accommodation
- energy storage and renewables
- loss of public water supplies
Low priority risks
- commercial buildings
- tunnels
- fuel storage
- rescues from depth
- rescues of trapped persons
- rescues from height
- hazardous materials
- agricultural buildings
- collapsed buildings
- utility networks and infrastructure
- public disorder
- airports and aircraft
- bridge collapse
- power stations
- animal rescue
- major fires at industrial sites
- industrial accidents
- earthquake
Not rated
Whilst we undertake an assessment of the impact of malicious attacks and our ability to respond to them, we do not publish a priority risk rating for these. The National Security Risk Assessment provides the overall risk rating for these types of attacks, based on restricted information and intelligence. We therefore provide risk information that summarises what these risks are and how we prepare for them, but we do not publish a comparative risk rating or detail on any capability gaps. These risks are:
- attacks on crowded places
- attacks on transport systems
- chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks
- attacks on utilities and critical infrastructure
- cyber attacks
Excluded risks
The following risks appear on other risk registers, but we have excluded them from ours on the basis that the risk:
- does not apply to, or impact, the fire sector; or
- does have impacts on the fire sector, but these risks are covered within related risk categories.
Excluded risks
- border closures
- loss of strategic road network
- prolonged disruption to a border control location
- industrial action taken by workers providing critical services
- marine blockade to ports
- loss of gas supply
- outbreak of animal disease
- outbreak of plant disease
- poor air quality
- space weather
- fuel disruption
- loss of telecommunications
- industrial action - public transport
- influx of British nationals
- international terrorist attack
- Northern Ireland related terrorism
- strategic hostage taking
- assassination of a high profile public figure
- cyber attack - gas infrastructure
- cyber attack - electricity infrastructure
- cyber attack - civil nuclear infrastructure
- attack on government
- cyber attack: health and social care system
- cyber attack: transport sector
- malicious attacks - UK financial critical national infrastructure
- cyber attack - UK retail bank
- total loss of transatlantic telecommunications cables
- disruption of Russian gas supplies to Europe
- disruption to global oil trade routes
- major adult social care provider failure
- insolvency of supplier(s) of critical services to the public sector
- insolvency affecting fuel supply
- malicious drone incident
- disruption of space-based services
- loss of positioning, navigation and timing (‘pnt’) services
- radiation release from overseas nuclear site
- technology failure at a systemically important retail bank
- technology failure at a UK critical financial market infrastructure
- accidental work related (laboratory) release of a hazardous pathogen
- food supply contamination
- volcanic eruption
- severe space weather
- poor air quality
- outbreak of an emerging infectious disease
- animal disease: major outbreak of foot and mouth disease
- animal disease: major outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza
- animal disease: major outbreak of African horse sickness
- animal disease: major outbreak of African swine fever
- major outbreak of plant pest: xylella fastidiosa
- major outbreak of plant pest: agrilus planipennis
- industrial action
- reception and integration of British nationals arriving from overseas
- deliberate disruption of UK space systems and space-based activities
- attack on a UK ally or partner outside NATO or a mutual security agreement requiring international assistance
- attack against a NATO ally or UK deployed forces, which meets the Article 5 threshold
- conventional attack on the UK mainland or overseas territories
- nuclear miscalculation not involving the UK
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