Community risk registers

A community risk register is the local counterpart of the National Risk Register. It records the risks that the responders in one area have assessed as most likely to affect that area, and it shapes the plans they make. This page explains the legal basis, who keeps it, and how to find the one for where you live.

The legal basis

Section 2(1)(a) of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 requires each Category 1 responder from time to time to assess the risk of an emergency occurring. Regulation 13 of the Contingency Planning Regulations 2005 limits that duty to emergencies which affect or may affect the area in which the responder's functions are exercisable.

Regulation 15(1) then requires the Category 1 responders with functions in a local resilience area in England or Wales, as part of the local resilience forum, to co-operate with each other in maintaining a register of those assessments. The Regulations call it "the community risk register". Regulation 15(2) requires each responder from time to time to inform the others of the assessment it has carried out. Regulation 15(4) requires each responder to have regard to the register when assessing risk under section 2(1)(a) and (b).

Regulation 17 makes the same provision for Scotland, where the register is kept as part of the strategic co-ordinating group rather than a forum.

Sensitive information

Regulation 15(3) is the exception. A responder need not share an assessment with the others to the extent that it contains sensitive information and the responder has reasonable grounds to believe that sharing it would adversely affect national security, or the confidentiality of public safety, commercial or personal information. Regulation 45 defines sensitive information. Regulation 27 separately requires responders, when publishing assessments and plans, to have regard to the importance of not alarming the public unnecessarily. Together these explain why a published register is a summary rather than the full working assessment.

Who else sees it

Regulation 16 requires a Category 1 responder to provide a copy of its area's register, from time to time, to the Category 1 responders in any neighbouring local resilience area. In Wales a copy goes to the National Assembly for Wales, as the Regulations name it. In England a copy goes to the Secretary of State. Regulation 38 requires a local authority to take the register into account when advising businesses and voluntary organisations on continuity under section 4 of the Act.

In London, regulation 55 gives the London fire and emergency planning authority lead responsibility for making sure a community risk register is maintained in each local resilience area in the capital.

National guidance feeds in

Regulation 14 allows a Minister of the Crown to issue a Category 1 responder with guidance on the likelihood or impact of a particular kind of emergency, and with an assessment of it. Regulation 14(10) requires the responder to take the guidance into account and to adopt the assessment. The National Risk Register 2025 describes itself as the external version of the National Security Risk Assessment, which it says is used within government and by local resilience forums and their equivalents in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The same document says that local resilience partners produce community risk registers which focus on the highest priority risks in each local area, and that the National Risk Register should be read in conjunction with the community risk register for the relevant local area.

Finding yours

The gov.uk page of local resilience forum contact details lists every forum in England and Wales and, for each, gives a link to its community risk register. Some registers are a page on the forum's own website, under a heading such as our risks or know your risks. Others are a document to download. The Be Ready website, published by the Cabinet Office, says the registers focus on the highest priority risks in each local area, and points readers to them to check the risks where they are.

For Scotland the National Risk Register points to community risk registers published by the Regional Resilience Partnerships, and for Northern Ireland to the Emergency Preparedness Groups. The Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland page describes those arrangements.