About the GDS
What the GDS DOES...
The GDS will help the country prepare for a CBRN or significant HAZMAT incident, and minimise its impact on society, the economy and the environment.
To ensure the UK has a effective decontamination capability, we will fulfil three main functions:
- We will provide advice and guidance to support those who will be responsible for decontamination during their contingency planning and during actual incidents.
- We will maintain a Framework of specialist suppliers and assess their ability to carry out decontamination operations, and ensure that responsible authorities have ready access to those services if the need arises.
- We will advise central Government on the national capability for the decontamination of buildings, infrastructure, mobile transport assets and the open environment. We will also regularly review the UK’s capability to respond to such incidents.
Our work is built on a foundation of scientific support and research to improve decontamination technologies and capabilities.
These functions will allow GDS to bring together the available expertise in a logical and comprehensive manner, allowing those responsible for decontamination to function far more effectively. We will remove the need for them having to procure the work independently, and allow them to benefit from pre-planning.
Page last modified: 5 March 2008
Page published: 12 May 2006