Workshop on Private Sector Emergency Preparedness and Business Continuity

nThe Federal 9-11 Commission held a November 2003 hearing on emergency preparedness which underscored a need by the private sector for clarity as to what appropriate “emergency preparedness” means.  Following this hearing, they requested that ANSI investigate this issue from a standards perspective and provide a recommendation on a national preparedness standard for use by the private sector.  The ANSI-HSSP established workshop on Private Sector Emergency Preparedness and Business Continuity.

Three workshop meetings were held between January and April 2004 involving security experts from a wide-range of industries and sectors.  Following a review of existing standards and guidelines, the workshop identified NFPA 1600 (Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs) as a good base document from which to work.

Following the series of meetings, the workshop recommended the standard to the 9-11 Commission and produced a set of recommendations to the NFPA 1600 Technical Committee for possible future revisions/supplements to the standard.

The 9-11 Commission accepted the ANSI recommendation and included in its final report (p. 398) the recommendation that NFPA 1600 become the national preparedness standard for the private sector.  This standard is freely available for download from the NFPA website.