The director of the DDSC, a senior defence official, steers and coordinates the departments in charge of :
- preparing, coordinating and implementing civil defence measures, the population protection policy, preventing civil hazards of all kinds and planning emergency preparedness measures ;
- emergency actions to ensure the security of persons and goods, in peacetime and during times of crisis ;
- civil security intervention resources :
support for local emergency and fire control departments and drafting legislation governing the fire services ;
- promoting information on civil security and training fire service officers.
He is supported by the defence security official, the information systems security official and the cipher and security office. Central government officials, technical contractual staff, police officers, engineers, the fire services... the 2470 personnel of the emergency preparedness directorate have 43 different statuses. On a daily basis, or to attenuate the effects of a disaster, this directorate's departments reinforce the local action of emergency teams, essentially the 240,000 departmental fire workers, their military colleagues in Paris and Marseille and volunteer emergency workers. For any exceptional situation requiring appropriate civil defence measures (public order, population protection, etc.), these personnel and resources act in conjunction with those under the general directorate of the national police and also with the Ministry of Defence and other ministries. Irrespective of the nature and scale of the situation, all these teams remain, at a local level, under the responsibility of the prefect.
Four subdivisions, the inspectorate and one mission
The emergency preparedness inspectorate inspects all the emergency preparedness departments and ensures the departments' compliance with current legislation and regulations. As required, it proposes any specific measures to increase the efficiency of these departments in terms of organisation, training, equipment and operational use of their resources. Finally, it may be assigned any investigatory and inspection tasks deemed necessary.
The international relations mission coordinates and centralises all international actions conducted in the area of emergency preparedness. It compiles all information in this area and acts as an interface with the minister's office and the international affairs delegate. It implements international cooperation actions in conjunction with the other departments of the Ministry of the Interior and the public bodies concerned. It ensures the cohesion of international actions conducted with the parties concerned in conjunction with the fire services subdivision.
The administration and modernisation subdivision steers the management policy and is responsible for human resources management. It manages the recruitment of State personnel assigned to civil security departments. It prepares and implements the directorate's budget. It advises the departments on legal aspects. It manages equipment and infrastructures, steers and coordinates information technology development actions. It manages a specialised emergency preparedness documentation centre.
The civil defence and hazard prevention subdivision conducts studies and research on all hazards and threats. It takes part in prevention actions and the drafting of emergency preparedness regulations. It assists the senior defence official in the general coordination of civil defence matters. It defines the policy and framework for planning defence and emergency measures and, as such, acts as an interface with the territorial managers. It organises feedback and helps train territorial managers on crisis management. It prepares the measures to be implemented to combat natural and technological hazards.
The fire brigade subdivision takes part in the drafting of legislation pertaining to the devolved civil security departments and fire and emergency services. It conducts studies and provides the information required to improve the running of the emergency services. It takes part in drafting legislation pertaining to the status of professional and volunteer fire workers, civilian volunteers and civilian national service conducted in these services. It manages the departmental fire and emergency service directors, fire brigade officers and members of the health and emergency medical services. It manages civilian national service personnel and civilian volunteers assigned to civil security. It defines, steers and coordinates fire worker training and promotes information on civil security, in conjunction with the associations involved. It takes part in the definition of usage rules pertaining to the fire brigade health and emergency medical service. It acts as an interface with industry with regard to civil security material and equipment standards and approval and for access to external markets. It supervises the national civil security research institute.
The emergency service organisation and civilian-military cooperation subdivision prepares, steers and coordinates emergency actions pertaining to the security of persons and goods and those pertaining to protection against forest fires. It takes part in environmental protection actions. The interministerial operational crisis management centre (COGIC) is attached to this subdivision. It implements civilian national resources and military civil security units. It coordinates the use of territorial operational civil security resources. Its vice director is the operational assistant of the emergency preparedness director.
Within the scope of civilian-military cooperation, it implements specific resources and coordinates the civil defence policy. It acts as an interface with the operational combined armed forces centre, the general directorate of the national police and the general directorate of the national gendarmerie. It prepares and implements measures to combat nuclear, radiological, biological and chemical hazards and threats.
It acts as a liaison with the general operational territorial defence inspectorate. It is in charge of ongoing liaison and coordination duties with the defence zones in Metropolitan France and the overseas territories. To this end, it studies and implements the restructuring of zone organisation.
It takes part in the definition and management of transmission, alert and operational information systems networks. It makes use of the information systems office for prospective projects and the implementation of operational resources. It contributes to the policy and legislation pertaining to medical aspects of the emergency services. It takes part in international emergency actions.
