National role

National arrangements for emergency response help protect the public, emergency services and other stakeholders in the event of a chemical incident.

In the UK, NCEC perform a central role in the Chemsafe scheme. We collect SDS from the chemical industry and use these to provide advice to the emergency services during a chemical incident. We also train UK emergency services in chemical incident response and how to use Chemsafe. We have provided Chemsafe emergency response for over 40 years and take over 300 calls per year from the UK emergency services, relating to spills, fires, reactions and other incidents in all location types, e.g. on the road network, site based, domestic settings, etc.

A major benefit of national emergency response is the reduced impact of incidents on transport infrastructure, since prolonged closure of major roads can lead to severe financial impacts on the economy. Our depth of expertise enables us to provide a proportionate response to incidents, which in turn ensures efficient and effective management of infrastructure – not just road networks, but also ports, airports and rail networks.

Learn more about Chemsafe

As well as our role in the UK, we have also supported governments and emergency services around the world in improving the standards of their national emergency response arrangements, including recent projects in Australia, Malaysia and China.