9. Disaster recovery
The Department of Energy and Public Works (EPW) undertakes a formal risk-management process and has developed disaster recovery plans for its office buildings as part of its portfolio management responsibilities. If agencies' office accommodation becomes unusable in whole or in part due to an adverse event, EPW will obtain temporary office accommodation for affected agencies. For EPW to assist agencies in disaster recovery planning, agencies need to ensure they have their own disaster recovery and business continuity plans in place so that these can be referenced by EPW in the event of a disaster. Agencies need to supply information to EPW about the following aspects of their service delivery requirements:
- criticality of services
- maximum service-reinstatement time
- minimum area required or the number of staff to be accommodated
- technology requirements.
Close consultation between affected agencies and EPW is required if such a scenario eventuates.
Agencies are responsible for developing business-related disaster recovery plans. EPW will assist agencies, on request, to develop these plans and will provide input for office accommodation recovery processes.
It is recommended that agencies liaise regularly with EPW to discuss service recovery in relation to office accommodation.