"This is the time for the organisational resilience community to unite"

As more and more businesses start to implement remote working practices, BSI's Cyber Security and Information Resilience team has put together a series of tips for businesses and workers as to how to best prepare for working away from their offices efficiently and securely – from protecting confidential business information to effective working patterns and environments.

The Lloyd’s Market Association has called on all its staff to work from home from tomorrow as it invokes is business continuity plan in response to the coronavirus pandemic. It has also postponed all its events and academy programmes from today until the end of April.

Lloyd’s closed its underwriting room at midnight last night for 24 hours in order to test alternative trading protocols. The stress test is part of the corporation’s business continuity preparations in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Lloyd’s Market Association has today published policy language to ensure customers’ coverage continues beyond a specified renewal date if the Lloyd’s market is inaccessible, and Emergency Trading Protocol fails.

Poor employee health has overtaken IT and telecoms outages to become the most frequent cause of disruption to businesses globally, according to the latest global survey of 665 businesses by the British Standards Institution and the Business Continuity Institute in their ninth annual Horizon Scan Report.

According to research from Pool Re, 43% of businesses surveyed after the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017 did not have any continuity, disaster recovery or crisis plan in place.

The Financial Conduct Authority has said it expects all firms to have contingency plans in place to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak, as it would any major event, and, along with the Bank of England and the Treasury, is working with a number of firms to assess operational risks and business continuity measures.

The government has today published its official coronavirus action plan. With the current focus on containing the spread, the next stage of the plan involves delaying the outbreak until warmer months to avoid overlapping with seasonal flu and other winter pressures on the NHS.

Crises Control has created a series of pandemic response toolkits to help its customers prepare their own businesses to mitigate and respond to the potential disruptions presented by the COVID-19 outbreak.

As the spread of the virus continues globally, interrupting supply chains along the way, Marsh has issued a four-step action plan to help organisations prevent, respond and recover.

The recent and quite rapid spread of the novel coronavirus (nCoV) throughout China has become a cause for concern in global markets. Domestic demand in China, where the outbreak is at its most concentrated, has already been affected.

Chubb has launched a new insurance package aimed at bridging gaps in traditional terrorism business interruption policies. Non Damage Terrorism Solutions is a single policy offering non damage business interruption, with employee and customer care assistance as a result of a terrorism loss. The policy also provides event cancellation coverage following an act or threat of terrorism, including an extension for War.

How are changes in modern working practices impacting the need for, and demands of, work area recovery in the UK? Ant Gould examines the provision of WAR and the impact of recent developments on the market and its providers

The ongoing migrant crisis poses an array of potential problems for international businesses. Addressing weak links in a supply chain – and the looming additional threat of climate change migration – may require new approaches, writes Martin Allen