National emergency risk assessments: comparative study of Estonia and the UK

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative study of the national risk assessment outcomes of two different countries of the European Union: Estonia, as a socalled 'new member' and the UK as an 'old member'. The comparative survey was carried out on the basis of the National Summary of Emergency Risk Assessments of Estonia and the National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies of the UK. The features compared were requirements, methodologies, risk assessment process and performers, risk types and categories together with risk assessment outcomes as well as output documents' composition. Simultaneously parallels were drawn with local level emergency risk assessments. Although the risk types were defined diversely in the two countries, an indirect comparison was still accomplishable. For instance, the risk of pandemic human disease was assessed as one of the highest in both countries. On the grounds of our observations, the National Risk Register of the UK was comparatively more, an advising, guiding and directing document while the Estonian emergency risk assessment summaries were in a greater part of a summarizing character.