Business Safety and Contingency Planning

Read below about our business support and guidance to keep your business safe and prepare for emergencies.

Contingency planning

A business continuity management plan may help you return to ‘business as usual’ as soon as possible.

Preparing your business for emergencies

Fire safety

For fire safety guidance for businesses, please visit London Fire Brigade.

Legionnaires

Water system stagnation due to lack of use needs to be managed to prevent problems upon reinstatement or return to use. Different types of water systems may require different precautions to be applied to manage the high risk of Legionella. It’s vital that all premises with a water system have an active programme in place to control the growth of Legionella bacteria and so ensure the safety of their employees, guests and other people, as well as the businesses’ reputation.

Learn more about how to manage your water system

Deep cleaning service and PPE disposal

We have a special disinfection service for businesses looking to maintain a high standard. The disinfection service minimises risk to employees and customers to provide essential safety reassurance. Where people come into contact with potentially contaminated surfaces, our solution eradicates the health and safety risks associated with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 at your sites. 

We also have a range of information on disposal of PPE and support for businesses around resuming their collections on our Clean Streets hub.

Business Readiness Toolkit Pilot

The council, in partnership with the West End Security Group (WESG), are launching the pilot of its Business Readiness Toolkit.

While many businesses are experienced in business continuity, emergency preparedness and accounting for the impacts of major incidents, there are many businesses in Westminster who are not. The Council recognises that there is a lack of support for businesses in this area, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises. The implications of minimal support provision in this area is costly to all, not just to the business community. Businesses, jobs and safety can be put at risk, and also drives up the cost of goods, services and insurance. These effects are felt disproportionately by smaller enterprises which make up the majority of businesses in the City.

This toolkit is designed to support and empower businesses to understand the risks that they may face and develop plans to mitigate or respond to them.

Over the course of the next few months, we will be working with businesses in the Soho area to find out whether this toolkit has helped. We will then evaluate the outputs and benefits of the initiative with the intention of rolling this out as a Westminster-wide Business Readiness Framework.

If you are a business in Soho, you can download the following toolkits and supporting documents: