| Ref | Scenario and assumption | Type | Escalates from | Recovery timeframe |
|---|
This plan sets out how A M Water Services Limited would keep operating, or recover, where a disruption breaches one of the five impact thresholds below. AMWS is a single-site water-services contractor of around twenty people with two Directors, one office and a small fleet, and the plan is sized to that. It follows the FSB Insurance Service business continuity template, which is written for businesses of this size.
| Tier 1 — immediate response minutes to hours | APP_16 Emergency Preparedness & Response, which holds the response matrix, the key emergency contacts and the office emergency arrangements |
| Tier 2 — business continuity hours to weeks | This plan, where a disruption has breached or is likely to breach one of the impact thresholds |
APP_16 takes precedence while anyone is at risk. Continuity decisions wait until the scene is safe.
An impact is unacceptable when it would stop AMWS achieving its long-term objectives, and would require the business to be run differently in order to survive. Anything below these thresholds is managed in normal operations or under APP_16.
| Impact type | An unacceptable impact is |
|---|---|
| Financial | An uninsured loss that AMWS could not absorb from reserves without standing down crews or reducing headcount |
| Reputation | Suspension or removal from a water company framework, or a client withholding work pending assurance |
| Production | Emergency call-outs or framework jobs not delivered for more than one week |
| Human | A fatality, or a specified injury under RIDDOR, to an operative, a subcontractor or a member of the public |
| Regulatory | A prohibition notice, Environment Agency enforcement, or loss of certification or SSIP registration, such that AMWS cannot work on the frameworks |
This plan is invoked when any of these thresholds has been breached or is likely to be. That test is also the reason a scenario appears in the table above and the reason others do not.
A critical service is one whose loss threatens the continuity of the business.
| Service | Required recovery timeframe | Processes it relies on |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency call-out response to water company clients | 4 hours | One crew, one vehicle, one mobile phone, the client's job instruction |
| Making safe an open excavation or live site | Immediate | Any two operatives; signing, lighting and guarding stock |
| Framework job delivery | 3 working days | Crews, plant, materials, RAMS from the Van Packs portal |
| Payroll | 5 working days | Bank access and the payroll records; the accountant can run it under the standing arrangement |
| Activity | Description | Status | Date planned or completed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Production and authorisation | Plan rebuilt on the FSB template and approved by the Directors | Completed | 28/09/2026 |
| Exercise — key-person absence | Desktop exercise, Managing Director unavailable for 5+ working days | Completed | 17/03/2026 |
| Exercise — key-person absence | Desktop exercise, Site Supervisor unavailable for 5+ working days. Closed CAR-2026-005 | Completed | 26/05/2026 |
| Exercise — loss of the office | Desktop exercise, Northampton office unusable | Planned | Q4 2026 |
| Exercise — systems recovery | Documented restore test proving the backup procedure. APP_07 action 18, Sean Ashton | Planned | 31/03/2027 |
| Training | Directors and Site Supervisor briefed on their role in this plan | Planned | Q4 2026 |
| Review | Annual review of this plan | Planned | 01/06/2027 |
Records of each exercise are held in the APP_16 testing log.
| Role | Competencies required | What the role does | Primary | Deputy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director in charge | Business and customer knowledge; authority over financial, customer and HSQE decisions | Decides whether to invoke this plan; assesses the impact against the thresholds; directs the response; communicates with clients, the insurer and the regulators; decides when normal operation has resumed | Aaron Mason, Managing Director | Leanne Mason, Director — Finance/Admin |
| Operational recovery | Site and plant knowledge; NRSWA and water-hygiene competence; supervises crews | Re-prioritises crews, vehicles and plant; makes open excavations and live sites safe; arranges hire or subcontract cover; briefs operatives | Jason May, Site Supervisor | Aaron Mason, Managing Director |
Escalation between the primary and the deputy is a phone call. No further command structure is needed for a business of this size, and the deputising arrangement has been exercised twice, on 17/03/2026 and 26/05/2026.
Sean Ashton (Onyx Operations, HSQE Consultant) advises on any decision touching health, safety, environmental or regulatory risk, and on any statutory notification. He holds no operational authority.
Where to go. For the office premises, the assembly points and the evacuation route are in RA_HO_17 Fire Safety Management and SOP 8.15 Fire. On site, the muster arrangement is in the job RAMS.
Who to call. The internal numbers, the utility emergency lines and the statutory bodies — Environment Agency, HSE, ICO, Action Fraud — are held once, in the Key emergency contacts section of APP_16. They are not repeated here, so there is one list to keep current. Escalate to Aaron Mason, or to Leanne Mason if Aaron is unavailable.
Organise. Mobilise the roles above and deputise where the primary is unavailable. Record the decisions taken and the times they were taken.
Command centre. Adopt one of the following, in order.
| Option | Where |
|---|---|
| The Northampton office | 01604 763641 |
| A Teams call | Where the office is unusable or the Directors cannot travel |
Crisis agenda. Use this to structure each meeting, and minute it.
Stakeholders and communication.
| Stakeholder | What they rely on from us | Who tells them | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| The client whose job is affected | What has happened, the effect on their programme, when they will next hear from us | Aaron Mason | Within 4 hours of the decision to invoke |
| Other clients with live jobs | Whether their work is affected, including when the answer is no | Aaron or Leanne Mason | Within 24 hours |
| Operatives and crews | Whether to work, where to go, what has changed | Jason May, WhatsApp Works group | Immediately, and before the next shift starts |
| Subcontractors and suppliers | Whether to attend, deliver or stand down | Leanne Mason | Within 24 hours |
| Insurer or broker | Notification of the event | Aaron Mason | Within 4 hours where a claim is likely |
| HSE or the Environment Agency | Statutory notification where the trigger is met | Sean Ashton with Aaron Mason | To the statutory deadline — RIDDOR timescales, or immediately for a pollution incident |
| ICO | Where a notifiable personal-data breach has occurred | Sean Ashton | Within 72 hours (POL_HSQE_30 Section 8) |
| Alcumus ISOQAR | Only where the disruption affects certification | Sean Ashton | Before the next scheduled contact |
Apply these steps, then take the strategy from the scenario table above.
| System | How it is hosted | Who relies on it | Workaround | Recovery process | Recovery time | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 — email, Teams, OneDrive | By the supplier, software as a service | All staff | Mobile phones for calls; WhatsApp Works group for the crew cascade | Wait for supplier recovery. Provider backup is the primary backup, POL_HSQE_30 Section 4 | 1 day | No — APP_07 action 18, Sean Ashton, 31/03/2027 |
| IMS and Van Packs portals | Static sites, cloud-hosted, versioned in the build source | Operatives for RAMS and work packs; Directors; auditors | Work packs are carried in the vans in hard copy | Rebuild and redeploy from the versioned source | 1 day | Yes — rebuilt from source at each issue |
| Xero | By the supplier, software as a service | Leanne Mason and the accountant | Invoices held and entered when the service returns; payroll run by the accountant under the standing arrangement | Wait for supplier recovery | 1 week | Not applicable — no AMWS-side recovery step |
| WhatsApp Works group | By the supplier, on operatives' mobiles | Operatives and the Site Supervisor | Direct calls from the contact list in APP_16 | Wait for supplier recovery | 1 day | Yes — the phone fallback is in routine use |
Held once, in the Key emergency contacts section of APP_16: internal numbers, the utility emergency lines for Anglian Water, Affinity Water, Cadent Gas, UK Power Networks and Openreach, and the statutory bodies. Checked at the standing weekly Director and HSQE call.
Supplier contacts are on APP_19 Approved Supplier Register. Operative contact details are held by Leanne Mason.
| Role | Responsibility |
|---|---|
| Aaron Mason Managing Director | Decides whether to invoke this plan, directs the response, and approves this document |
| Leanne Mason Director — Finance/Admin | Deputises as Director in charge; handles the supply chain, payroll and the insurer during a disruption |
| Jason May Site Supervisor | Operational recovery: crews, vehicles, plant and making sites safe |
| Sean Ashton HSQE Consultant | Advises on health, safety, environmental and regulatory decisions and on statutory notification; maintains this plan and the exercise programme |
Approved by Aaron Mason as Managing Director. Reviewed annually, after any activation for a real incident, after each desktop exercise, and whenever the risk profile changes — a new contract, a new operation, or a change of personnel in a key role. The outcome of any activation is an input to the annual Management Review.
| Issue | Date | Approved by | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 01/06/2024 | Aaron Mason, Director | Initial issue. |
| 2 | 30/09/2025 | Aaron Mason, Director | Reviewed following IA202512 Emergency Preparedness (0 NC, 0 OBS). Scenario framework introduced; test log restructured. |
| 3 | 01/06/2026 | Aaron Mason, Director | Reviewed in line with the 2026 internal audit cycle — IA202612 Emergency Preparedness (19/05/2026, 0 NC, 0 OBS). Restructured to a 12-scenario format; invocation threshold set at disruption exceeding 24 hours; two-tier model formalised with APP_16. CAR-2026-005 closed via the Q2 2026 desktop exercise, Site Supervisor absence, 26/05/2026. |
| 4 | 09/09/2026 | Aaron Mason, Director | Business impact analysis added, with prioritised activities and a recovery objective for each. Communication during a disruption added. |
| 5 | 28/09/2026 | Aaron Mason, Director | Rebuilt on the FSB Insurance Service business continuity template, which is written for single-site businesses of this size. Impact tolerance now sets the test — five thresholds, and a disruption is a continuity event when it breaches one, which is what decides whether a scenario belongs in this plan. Critical services reduced to the four whose loss threatens the business, with one recovery timeframe each in place of two figures for each of eight activities. Scenarios reduced from twelve to eight: loss of IT service and cyber incident separated, because one is waited out and the other is contained and may be notifiable; severe weather managed in normal operations under APP_16; key-person absence consolidated to one scenario covering all three named roles. Roles reduced to two, each with a primary and a deputy. Recovery strategies now name the risks they answer on APP_05 and the alternatives on APP_19. IT service continuity added, with the hosting, the workaround, the recovery process and whether the recovery has been tested for each system. Contacts held once in APP_16 rather than duplicated. The ISO 22301 coverage map is withdrawn: AMWS is not certified to it and is not seeking to be, and this plan answers Clauses 6.1 and 8.1 of ISO 9001 and Clause 8.2 of ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 through APP_02. |