Overview

A business continuity audit is a structured review of your organisation’s existing business continuity arrangements, designed to assess whether they are fit for purpose, proportionate, and practical.

This service provides clarity on how well your organisation could continue delivering critical services during disruption and whether current plans support confident decision-making, response and recovery. It can be delivered as a standalone piece of work or as part of a wider resilience programme as required by your organisation, such as Business Continuity Support or Testing and Exercising.

When This is Useful

This service is designed for organisations which:

• Have an existing business continuity plan that is overdue for review

• Have grown, restructured or changed how services are delivered; potentially impacting priorities, resourcing or recovery requirements

• Are seeking a review of current readiness to understand what is working well and where improvements could be made.

This review is often used as a baseline assessment, informing decisions about whether plans need updating, testing or further investment in resilience.

What’s Involved

The audit is proportionate to your organisation’s size, risk profile and operating context. The scope and depth are agreed in advance and may include:

• Reviewing existing business continuity plans and supporting documentation
  Providing a clear view of how current arrangements align with organisational needs and expectations.

• Assessing identified critical activities and key dependencies
  To confirm priorities, interdependencies and potential points of vulnerability.

• Reviewing roles, responsibilities and escalation arrangements
  Ensuring accountability and decision-making pathways are clear and workable.

• Considering recovery strategies, assumptions and timescales
  To assess whether they are realistic, proportionate and achievable in practice.

• Identifying gaps, inconsistencies or unnecessary complexity
  Highlighting where plans may be over-engineered, unclear or misaligned.

You will receive clear, written findings including a summary of strengths and good practice, identification of gaps and priority risks, and practical, prioritised recommendations with clear next steps aligned to proportionate expectations.