Public Safety

What is Public Safety?

Public Safety involves protecting and safeguarding the public, as well as responding to crime, disaster, and other potential dangers and threats. This involves the emergency services working together with key partners, including safety focussed charities. Activity by community safety partnerships includes delivering essential safety messages and supporting efforts within preparation, response and recovery, to help reduce avoidable injuries and deaths within our communities.

Within this topic we explore various aspects of public safety, including Fire Safety, Arson and Deliberate Fire Setting and Road Safety – which have direct links into community safety. The work of Civil Contingencies and Resilience around emergency preparedness links into Counter-Terrorism and Extremism activity. We also include Home Safety and Outdoors (including Water) Safety which supports the wider ambitions of safer communities.

JESIP principles for joint working 

Findings and lessons identified by public inquiries and inquests have highlighted cases where the emergency services could have worked better together and shown much greater levels of communication, co-operation and co-ordination (see the Pollock Report). JESIP seeks to improve joint working between the emergency and responding services through the 5 JESIP principles – Co-locate; Communicate; Coordinate; Jointly understand risk; and Shared Situational Awareness.

Public Protection 

There are linkages from Public Safety into the Public Protection or Regulatory Services provided by Local Authorities which include environmental health, trading standards, pollution control, pest control, weights and measures, building control, advice services, licensing, food safety, health and safety and animal health. 

Services aim to promote a fair and just trading environment for citizens and business. However, criminal matters which require further investigation are referred to the Local Authorities Trading Standards team, who work in partnership with the Police and other investigatory bodies. Notably, the sale of counterfeit or fake goods, rogue traders or illegal money lending can be linked to organised crime (see Serious Violence and Organised Crime).

Other related topics to public safety within this website include Safeguarding, Public Order, Public Spaces, Night Time Economy (includes licensing) and Personal Safety (includes reference to workplace Health and Safety) and Environmental Anti-Social Behaviour (reference to Environmental Health).