Resilience in County Durham & Darlington New Dimension Project Following the attack on the World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001, a New Dimension group was established to evaluate the Fire and Rescue Service's ability to respond to such incidents, and to make recommendations as to how the response capability should be improved where necessary. This has been developed into a New Dimension Programme run by the Civil Resilience Directorate in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
The fire service's contribution to the Government's overall resilience strategy is via the New Dimension Programme, the broad aim of which is to deliver and implement the equipment, resources, procedures and training required to ensure that the UK Fire and Rescue Service is capable and ready to provide an efficient and effective response to any large scale terrorist or catastrophic incident.
The programme is in two phases:
- Phase 1 looked to provide the capability for the decontamination of large numbers of the public and emergency workers in the event of a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) incident. The Government provided an investment of £56m in Phase 1.
- Phase 2 will enhance the fire and rescue service's ability to undertake search and rescue work, for example, in the event of collapsed buildings. The Government is planning to spend £132m over three years on a wide range of vehicles, facilities and equipment for Phase 2.
The New Dimension project is focused on delivering the equipment, procedures and training to enable an effective regional and national response to a range of incidents. This regional emphasis is clear from the fact that only six of the eighty-eight officers seconded to this project work centrally in London, while the vast majority work in the regions.
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