Website of the UK government

Disruption to transport

The ways transport could be disrupted include:

International transport disrupted for up to 24 hours

This would involve closure of UK airspace and some maritime borders for a 24 hour period prohibiting inward or outward movements as part of the response to a major incident(s).

Disruption to domestic rail or air transport nationally and severe delays to road transport

Road transport may be disrupted for up to three days with gradual restoration of normal service over a period of four months.

This may happen under extreme weather conditions and heavy snow, disruption to fuel distribution or electricity supply disruption. Industrial action by transport staff could also cause disruption, but this would probably be shorter in duration.

Disruption to domestic rail or air transport nationally and severe delays to local transport networks for up to seven days

This could be caused by a number of situations. As there are generally other modes of transport available, severe delays rather than complete denial are likely.

If you can’t access your business site

You may not receive any warning that you can’t get into your workplace. This may be as a result of:

Harmful substances

This could occur under several scenarios which would vary in duration and geographical coverage.

One example may be the accidental or deliberate release of a harmful substance. The length of time the area would be unavailable would depend on the nature of the contaminant and would be heavily reliant on the emergency services returning the affected area to use, but could last anything from a few months to several years.

Flooding

In the case of a flooding incident, you may find that a large single urban area, including important sites, are inaccessible for seven days. Loss of site could also result from:

• emergency services cordon around the site of an emergency
• industrial accident and subsequent clean-up operation