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Case Studies - Recent Local Exercises

Exercise Horizon

July 2004

Exercise Horizon took place in Birmingham on Sunday 18th July 2004, as part of a region wide programme to further develop the West Midlands' capability to respond to Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) incidents. The exercise was the largest multi agency exercise of its kind to be held in the UK, and took place at a number of locations within Birmingham including the National Exhibition Centre, Heartlands Hospital and West Midlands Police HQ. Around 2,000 response personnel took part, and 450 volunteers played the part of casualties for decontamination.

Pictures from the exercise can be viewed here

The exercise proved invaluable in practicing the regions response, command and control structures and deployment of specialist resources that exist within the West Midlands to assist with the response to CBRN incidents. An extensive programme of debriefing has now taken place. Key learning points and recommendations were identified and are helping to inform both national and regional guidance and protocols.

Exercise Horizon 2 & 3

During the autumn of 2004, the West Midlands Regional Resilience Forum (RRF) requested a series of further tabletop exercises to explore issues which could not be fully considered on the day.

Exercise Horizon 2, a tabletop exercise to consider issues surrounding the Local Authority response, took place at the NEC on the 25 January 2005.

Exercise Horizon 3, the final element in this programme and also hosted by the NEC Group, was held on 14 March 2005. This provided an opportunity to consider the 'Gold' strategic multi-agency response to this type of incident.

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