Friday, 28 September 2007
CERT Seminar

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), supported by National Fire and Civil Emergency Preparedness Council (NFEC), Singapore Chemical Industry Council (SCIC) and Society of Loss Prevention (SLP), will be holding a Company Emergency Response Team (CERT) Seminar this afternoon at 2pm at the Home Team Academy. Some 550 persons are attending the event which will be graced by Dr Choong May Ling, Deputy Secretary (Security), Ministry of Home Affairs.

What is a CERT?

Under the Fire Safety (Petroleum and Flammable Materials) Regulations 2005, licensees of premises storing petroleum or flammable materials or both, in quantities greater than 5,000 litres or aggregate weight greater than 5,000kg for mixed states, are to establish and maintain an in-house CERT.

The CERT is a group of personnel selected by a company to be trained in preventing any emergency from escalating into a major disaster. CERT audit provides a platform for continuous progress and also helps to surface any opportunities for improvement.
The CERT Seminar

This seminar serves to inform the industries on the implementation of CERT audit. The CERT audit will officially commence on April 2008. Upon commencement, there will be 1-year of grace period where companies will receive written directions from SCDF for any non-compliance.

During the preparation phase which is from now till April 2008, more workshops will be conducted to create awareness and build up CERT response capability. Feedback on the CERT audit guidelines will also be gathered from the industries. A copy of the programme for the CERT Seminar is attached at Annex B.

More about the CERT Audit Programme:

Through practical assessment, CERT will demonstrate their capability to provide an effective response towards 6 main activities as follows:

• Activation and Response of CERT
• Incident Size-Up
• Fire Fighting and Mitigating operations
• Support Activities
• Linking up with SCDF upon arrival
• Ongoing operations and recovery

Each of these activities has specific tasks that have to be carried out as stipulated in the CERT Audit Checklist.

Benefits of CERT

The CERT is an integral part of a company’s preparedness towards effective emergency management. With increased level of preparedness, CERT will be able to better protect the company’s employees, the public and the environment from the consequences of potential accidents such as fire, explosion or chemical release.

Effective CERT response will be able to minimize damage to the company’s property and reduce the possibility of disruption to the company’s production. It is thus an important aspect of business continuity.

In creating a safer working environment, CERT will increase the workers and public confidence in the company’s management towards any potential accidents to their hazardous storage inventory.