Reporting on risk management
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FIgURE
36.1
Selected UK security threats
Pandemic
human
disease
Likelihood
Impact
Cautious
zone
Comfort
zone
Concerned
zone
Critical
zone
Major transport
accidents
Attacks on
infrastructure
Major industrial
accidents
Attacks on
crowded
places
Cyber-
attacks
Severe
weather
Animal
disease
Coastal
flooding
●
●
political;
●
●
climate;
●
●
competition for energy;
●
●
poverty/inequality/poor governance;
●
●
globalization –
economic, technological and demographic.
This analysis by the UK government is an interesting example of the detailed risk
assessment being undertaken at national level. It demonstrates that risk management
is now embedded into the heart of national government. The
fact that risk manage-
ment has been embraced by national governments indicates that the importance of
risk management is recognized at the highest level. Figure 36.1 shows some of the
significant risks to UK national security identified by the government, at
the time of
the assessment in 2011.
The UK government has not classified risks in this way, but if the risk attitude
structure described in Figure 10.1 is used, then it is possible
to identify the major
threats where a government is comfortable that it can respond, such as transport
