London mass fatality plan version 4 - Greater London Authority

1.2 PURPOSE OF THE PLAN
To ensure that London has a capability to respond rapidly, effectively and flexibly with
the consequences of an incident involving Mass Fatality:
Support for those who have been bereaved, including communication of
information about fatalities to those who have been bereaved and to the wider
public
Ensuring that information about current local mortuary capacity and other
resources is readily available to the Mass Fatality Coordination and Gold
Coordinating Groups
Establish and audit the availability of sufficient specialist staff locally or
regionally, including Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) staff, Forensic Matching
Specialists, Forensic Odontologists, Forensic Pathologists and Anatomical
Pathology Technologists (APTs)
Planning for any National Emergency Mortuary Arrangements (NEMA)
deployment (connection of utilities, ground quality, disposal of waste, transport,
security of site, etc)
Ensuring readiness to respond to other Mass Fatality emergencies during or
soon after the initial emergency.
1.3 THREATS AND RISKS
Mass fatality incidents can occur without warning and can broadly be expected to fall
within:
Natural events - flooding, severe weather, earthquakes, etc
Major accidents - including transport, industrial, and fire
Malicious attacks - including terrorism and criminality
Crowd related incidents - involving disorder and/or overcrowding.
1.4 CONSIDERATIONS DURING A MASS FATALITY INCIDENT
Lessons learned from other mass fatality incidents and exercises indicate that the
following issues may arise and planners need to be aware of:
Planners should assume potential for wide dispersal of victims and body parts
For each incident, a Casualty Bureau (police led) may be established to collate
and pass on to police relevant data about persons who have been reported as
missing
The bodies of victims may require storage for significant periods of time in order
to assist with evidence for criminal investigations and in order to allow time for
the Coroner to confirm the identities of those who are deceased
London Mass Fatality Plan Page 8 of 30
Version 4