Business Continuity Management and Compliance: Legislation, Regulation and Standards

Eugene Taylor

Business continuity management (BCM) is a constantly evolving organisational discipline that is extensive by nature. The advent of the standard BS 25999–2 and its successor ISO 22301 spawned many component publications that address the finer aspects of BCM. As a result, this subject has become better understood and by a much wider audience. It is no wonder, therefore, that governments and businesses continue to be pressured to implement BCM as part of their overall resilience strategy.

BS 25999–2 was arguably the first global, auditable BCM technical specification standard (developed by the British Standard Institute technical committee BCM/1). Its unprecedented international uptake resulted in the development and publication of the international management system compliance standard ISO 22301.

In many countries, governments have taken the lead by requiring compliance with BCM good practice within their departments. The UK financial services sector (as well as their global counterparts) is subject to regulatory requirements. The UK Banking Act was amended in 2009 (Section 188) to include additional and more specific BC requirements that are overseen by the Bank of England