According to research published at the launch of UK Business Continuity Week earlier this year, UK business lost £500 million during the heavy autumn flooding. However, David Birch, head of BT Commsure, said that, despite 8,000 UK companies being affected by the floods, only a "handful" of FTSE 100 companies have a disaster recovery plan, because companies were unwilling to make the capital investment required.
Bilch believes that implementation of the regulations based on the recommendations of the Tumbull Report, which dictate that all FTSE listed companies must state whether they have risk management plans in place, will force companies to reconsider disaster planning. Turobull states that all publicly listed companies should be required to "minimise operational risk". Says Birch: "Now that the Tumbull recommendations have been introduced, shareholders will see for themselves which organisations have protected themselves against risk."
