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We all fear major disasters but know that sooner or later the unexpected will happen and we need to be prepared. I hope you’ll be reassured to know that the Agency, along with other Government departments and emergency services, regularly take part in exercises to test out our procedures in the event of an incident.

Yesterday the Agency took part in one such exercise – although, being confined to my sick bed in real life, my role was less proactive than might have been expected in the virtual circumstances – a radioactive leak, the effects of which needed modelling. Still, I received reports from and had discussions with my colleagues at the Agency as events literally played themselves out.

These exercises are always interesting for finding out what it is that we’re not sure about. People might be very confident about what they’re meant to be doing, but there’s often a point when the ‘how exactly do we do that?’ question comes into play – and leads to questions about how processes would unfold in different scenarios.

It’s also good for people in the Agency to work with colleagues who they come into contact with only occasionally on a daily basis, and experience how similar agencies work and communicate with each other.

Inevitably, there will be lessons to learn, and feedback will be collected and disseminated. And we hope we’ll be well prepared and our systems more resilient when a major incident does happen.