Without a common understanding of what specific terms and phrases mean, multi-agency working will always carry the risk of potentially serious misunderstandings, the consequences of which could be extremely severe. Since 2007 CCS has been working with a wide range of partners to build and maintain a single point of reference for civil protection terminology as one of the underpinning elements of interoperable communications and coherent multi-agency working.
A lexicon is a collection of terms from a specific area of work or knowledge that are defined and associated with additional user-relevant information. This lexicon establishes common, agreed definitions for terms used in the multi-agency business of civil protection. Future versions will build on this, encompassing a wider range of the terminology used across the range of Integrated Emergency Management activities. When future versions are released they will be published here.
The latest release, version 2.1.1, was published in February 2013. View it here.
You are encouraged to cross-reference definitions given in your own organisation’s documents to the Lexicon and adopt the definitions given in the Lexicon. If you wish to discuss any of the definitions or suggest additional terms for inclusion contact details are given in the spreadsheet, and we welcome your thoughts and contributions.
Related to the lexicon of civil protection terminology, Cabinet Office has also created a set of common map symbols for emergency responders.