A Selby-BASED emergency management company has responded to an SOS call from the Cabinet Office's national contingency planning unit, which has been thrust under the public spotlight since September 11.

Medical Response Logistics Ltd (MRI), of Vivars Way, Selby, has sent operational risk management specialist Julian Bentley to the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, based in the Cabinet Office's Emergency Planning College, at Hawkhills, near York.

During his six-month secondment, Julian, a law graduate who spent 12 years with the ambulance service, will advise the unit on a number of issues to help shape national emergency policy. Its importance to the government has increased in the past year, due to the terrorist events of September 11, flooding disasters and the fuel and foot and mouth crises.

MRL was founded in 1998 by former paramedic officer and managing director Phil Storr and has three full-time staff and 50 associate consultants. It has received regular and on-going help with formulating and updating its business plan from Business Link York and North Yorkshire .

It has undertaken safety and emergency planning policies for major music festivals such as Creamfields and helped the Department of Health with investigations into the Selby rail crash.

It also works with a number of technology companies to develop innovative products and services for emergency situations and is set to launch a hand-held computer system to revolutionise patient data collection in the ambulance service.

Mr Bentley, who has attended several major incidents in the capital as a paramedic, including the Bishopsgate and London Bridge bombings, combines this practical operational experience with his legal knowledge of risk.

Updated: 11:30 Tuesday, February 19, 2002