Innovative comms system will save vital time in multi-agency emergency responses
The system – supported by Ordnance Survey data – will reduce the time taken to transfer incident information between emergency service control rooms
Press Office
The Multi-Agency Incident Transfer (MAIT) standard is a system designed for emergency services, which reduces the time it takes to respond to an incident by allowing emergency services to send incident information to one or multiple control rooms instantly through a shared digital communications system. MAIT also presents incident information in a standard form, and makes sure the shared information is secure and accurate.
Implementation and some initial running costs for MAIT were funded for FRS in England by government. The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has been overseeing the roll-out of MAIT to all 44 FRS (served by 34 fire control rooms) in England; 27 services (served by 19 fire control rooms) are already using the system and it is expected that the majority will be online by the end of March.
"One of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 recommendations was to investigate methods for assisting control rooms to obtain access to information available to host control rooms. MAIT is one of the tools that enables fire control rooms to share critical information in fast time with other fire control rooms, and once onboarded, with other emergency services. Since ‘go live’, MAIT has been used in a number of operational scenarios, and the feedback from fire and rescue services has been very positive."
Other emergency services outside fire are being encouraged to take up the new protocol to grow the effectiveness of the network. To date, North Yorkshire Police and HM Coastguard are in the process of implementing MAIT in their control rooms.
Deputy Chief Coastguard at HM Coastguard Matt Leat, who is also a BAPCO trustee, said:
“Any process that can accelerate communication between emergency services has the potential to save lives. MAIT eases the pressure on control room operators, helps them manage incidents more effectively, and can cut response times by a matter of minutes. BAPCO fully supports this initiative and encourages interest from other agencies looking to bring the same benefits to their operations."
"Fire and rescue services are working alongside other emergency services more than ever before, and one of our priorities has been to make that joint response as smooth as possible. MAIT means control rooms can share information in seconds, not minutes, so every service is working from the same picture from the moment the call comes in. That improves coordination and helps get the right assistance to the public swiftly and safely."
In England, the contract to provide MAIT to all fire and rescue services was awarded to the AVR Group. It uses shared addressing standards to improve consistency between agencies, such as OS AddressBase Premium and the Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN). AVR, an OS partner, has also created a bespoke gazetteer, routinely used by FRS, which combines OS addressing and other boundary data to show which agencies cover the same geographical patch. The MAIT standard is available in both web-based and fully integrated versions.
Wes Clift, Customer Development Manager for National Security and Resilience at OS, said:
“Ordnance Survey has a long history of supporting the emergency services by providing trusted and accurate data across the whole of Great Britain. It’s a great privilege to know that our data is integral to the growing success of MAIT, which will be a key tool in supporting even more efficient delivery of critical emergency services. We would love to see an even greater adoption of this life-saving protocol by the wider blue light community.”
The value of MAIT has already been demonstrated in Wales, where it has been adopted by all of its emergency services. Any emergency services aside from fire wanting more information about MAIT in England should contact BAPCO through MAIT@BAPCO.org.uk.
The Grenfell Phase 1 Inquiry Recommendations regarding MAIT can be found at 33.16.
There is more information about MAIT on gov.uk - Share information between emergency services with MAIT - GOV.UK
Watch this video for more information about BAPCO and MAIT - British APCO: Who we are and what we do.
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