In light of the current Middle East Crisis and the rise in fuel and potential shortages due to the conflict, we have summarised UK government guidance on ‘Business Continuity Management for Fuel Shortages’ into a clear briefing for your business. We outline key planning principles, operational checks, and legal considerations to help you reduce the impact of any fuel supply disruption.
Fuel supply in the UK is generally reliable, though the conflict in the Middle East is affecting global energy supplies. The UK government maintains emergency measures, known as the National Emergency Plan – Fuel (NEP-F), for severe disruptions. These measures are reserved for significant events and should not be your primary assumption for business continuity planning.
Five pillars of preparedness
Effective preparation for fuel shortages means taking a comprehensive approach that covers different parts of your business’s operations. The following five pillars of preparedness offer a practical framework to help you reduce the impact of fuel disruptions. By lowering your fuel dependency, using fuel more efficiently, strengthening your supply chain resilience, reallocating resources wisely, and communicating clearly, you can maintain critical functions and recover more quickly during challenging times.
- Reduce dependency on fuel: Identify activities and staff travel that use a lot of fuel and find ways to remove, reduce, or replace them.
- Reduce fuel usage: Plan route consolidation, optimise schedules, and encourage remote working to lower travel demand.
- Strengthen supply chain resilience: Check your suppliers’ business continuity plans, find alternative suppliers, and hold critical spares where needed.
- Reallocate resources: Prioritise core services, safely pause non-essential functions, and redeploy staff as necessary.
- Communicate clearly: Prepare messages in advance for staff, suppliers, customers, and stakeholders, and appoint a single continuity lead.
NEP-F summary: What you need to know
The National Emergency Plan for Fuel (NEP-F) is a government-industry framework activated only during major, prolonged fuel supply disruptions. Its goal is to protect life, preserve essential public services, and keep critical supply chains running by allocating fuel resources in a controlled way. It is a last-resort measure, used only when normal commercial arrangements and other demand-management steps fail. It is not a routine support mechanism and will only be used in severe circumstances – in fact although the plan exists and is regularly updated, the NEP-F has not been formally implemented to date.
Key tools under NEP-F include:
- Maximum Purchase Scheme: Limits retail fuel sales per visit to conserve stocks.
- Designated Filling Stations (DFS): Priority fuel deliveries for emergency, utility, and other authorised vehicles.
- Commercial Scheme: Prioritised diesel supply to truck stops and commercial sites to support freight and logistics operations.
- Emergency Services and Utilities Fuel Schemes: Priority, and if needed unlimited, fuel for vehicles delivering vital services.
- Additional arrangements such as Temporary Logo provisions, Bulk Distribution prioritisation, and voluntary Mutual Aid support practical fuel distribution.
Your business should not expect priority access under NEP-F unless you have been specifically designated under the plan.
Legal, safety and environmental considerations
If your business stores or handles fuel on site, ensure compliance with Health & Safety regulations and Environment Agency Pollution Prevention Guidance. Consider site-specific safety and environmental controls.
When changing duties, travel requirements, or increasing home working, you should review employment law, health & safety, and insurance implications. Make sure decisions are proportionate and defensible. Keep clear records of allocation decisions and safety checks to support regulatory, insurer, and internal reviews.
Marsh offers tailored risk consulting services to support your organisation. This includes practical advice on Health and Safety principles, site surveys and safety audits, development of safe operating procedures and record-keeping templates, guidance on employment law and operational changes, and review or placement of appropriate insurance cover and endorsements to align operational decisions with insurer expectations.
Here to help
Businesses that embed structured business continuity management are better placed to maintain essential services during a fuel shortage. Practical, proportionate actions focused on people, travel, and supplier arrangements—such as recording alternative travel options, enabling remote or flexible working, consolidating journeys, and confirming supplier contingency plans—deliver the most immediate and effective resilience.
Reach out to your Marsh Commercial advisor to discuss your fuel-related continuity arrangements or health and safety measures. Alternatively email riskmanagement@marsh.com.
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