Half the firms in the City of London do not have adequate
business continuity plans in place to survive a terrorist incident,
the commissioner of the City of London Police warned this week.
James Hart said that not enough firms, particularly small and
medium-sized businesses, were taking practical steps to ensure they
could continue to operate in the wake of a terrorist attack.
"All big businesses are well aware of their vulnerabilities in
terms of the need for business planning. How much that planning
translates into operational effect, I sometimes wonder," he told
the Financial Times.
Hart said that although middle managers were aware of the
threats, it was difficult to interest chief operating officers and
managing partners in business continuity planning.
"The gap that I sometimes feel we have is at main board level,
or managing partner level, where there is an assumption that
someone in the management chain will be looking after this sort of
thing in the way that they would want," he said.
Hart called on big businesses to help those small and
medium-sized firms operating in their supply chain to prepare for
business interruptions.
Following the Madrid bombings in March last year, the CBI called
for the government to raise the profile of business continuity
planning.
"It is great that the issue has been brought to the attention of
these companies, and if the police can help these companies
understand what business continuity can do, that is a good thing,"
said Jeremy Beale, head of e-business at the CBI.
Research by the CBI suggests that medium-sized companies find it
more difficult to develop business continuity plans than large
firms, which have better resources, and smaller firms, which are
less burdened by bureaucracy.
IT directors in medium-sized firms often lack the budgets for
continuity planning and find it difficult to influence the board,
said Beale.
"They don't have their own security staff, and they rely on
consultants. They are vulnerable. A lot of them are stuck in a
cleft," he said.
"What needs to be done is to draw people’s attention to the fact
that they are involved in supply chains. That is a matter of IT
people being linked with the board, who understand this is a
strategic issue, and with the compliance people, " said Beal.
The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry agreed there are a
large number of firms in the City and elsewhere that do not have
business continuity plans in place.
The July bombings in London were a "wake-up call," the LCCI
said. It urged businesses in areas which were potentially
vulnerable to attack to put contingency plans in place "as a matter
of urgency."
“Subsequent to 9/11, 50% of the businesses which closed in New
York, and which did not have business continuity plans in place,
did not re-open. A closure of [just a handful of] days to a
low-margin operator can be fatal,” a spokesman said.