Guidance

Exercising Best Practice Guidance

This guidance provides good and leading practice in exercising to support UK Government departments, agencies, Arms-Length Bodies (ALBs), devolved administrations and wider resilience professionals in testing their resilience capabilities.

Documents

Exercising Best Practice Guidance (PDF)

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email accessible.formats@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Exercising Best Practice: Annexes and Resources (PDF)

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email accessible.formats@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Details

The purpose of the Exercising Best Practice Guidance is to provide a practical guide for individuals and teams who plan, prepare and deliver exercises in a civil contingency resilience setting.

This guidance replaces the Emergency planning and preparedness: exercises and training guidance (2013). It has been written with UK Government departments, agencies, Arms-Length Bodies (ALBs) and wider resilience professionals in mind and aims to help exercising colleagues design and implement impactful exercises, which in turn should improve exercising at a national and local level. 

It is not mandatory, but it sets out a common approach for UK Government departments to increase their exercising capability, working both individually and collectively. This guidance aligns with and reinforces the ‘National Resilience Standard for Local Resilience Forums No 8: Exercising (PDF, 933KB), which is a set of individual standards for LRFs to consistently identify good and leading practice, and help self-assure their capabilities and overall level of readiness.

Please contact UKRA@cabinetoffice.gov.uk and provide feedback on your use of the Exercising Best Practice Guidance.

Updates to this page

Published 30 September 2024

Sign up for emails or print this page