The CBRN Joint Operating Principles (Version 2.0), together with the ‘Initial Operational Response (IOR) to Incidents Suspected to involve Hazardous Substances or CBRN materials’, set out the operational delivery arrangements put in place by the emergency services, to deliver against the requirements of the framework.

The revised CBRN(e) Joint Operating Principles provides guidance for the emergency services in how to plan, prepare and work together to respond to CBRN(e) incidents effectively.

Following a comprehensive multi-agency review, ‘Responding to a CBRN(E) Event: Joint Operating Principles (JOPs), (published in 2016), has been updated to reflect the changes to the Strategic Framework and incorporate the emergency services’ mandate to respond to, and mitigate, the malicious use of CBRN materials or weapons.

Built on operational learning and operational experience, the JOPs are designed to be resilient to both current and future CBRN threats and risks.

The response to a CBRN Event should be seen as one continuous process, starting with the IOR, which will involve both unprotected first responders and CBRN protected resources, and consolidated as more CBRN protected resources arrive at the scene. Following the terrorist incident in Manchester Arena in 2017, these JOPs include additional considerations around the command and control of the response, and new CBRN zoning terminology, designed as a stand-alone, and to manage the complex inter-dependencies associated with a multi-threat operating environment.

Whilst these JOPs consider the malicious use of CBRN materials, thereby broadening their scope beyond the CT-focused scope of the 2016 document, it is recognised that the emergency services may not initially know whether the incident they are responding to is deliberate or accidental in nature. This uncertainty should not prevent the CBRN Joint Operating Principles from being adopted at the outset.

Irrespective of the cause, the emergency services will respond together to save life, investigate, resolve the emergency and support recovery. The implementation of this guidance, coupled with the JESIP principles, and the wealth of operational experience and organisational learning available to the emergency services, will help to ensure that we continue to deliver an effective, efficient and focused response to CBRN Events, both now and in the future.

The revised CBRN JOPS v2, are held on Resilience Direct, at OFFICIAL Sesnsitive level and are available to those with the correct permissions and security level. The document below provides a synopsis of the 2025 version which is available at Official for all responders to access, digest and understand.