Download our free Business Continuity Plan (BCP) template to begin documenting your business continuity arrangements.
What Is a Business Continuity Plan?
A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a structured document outlining how an organisation will continue operating during and after unexpected disruptions. This can include cyber attacks, natural disasters, and other major incidents.
The goal is to sustain essential business functions, minimise downtime, and recover quickly to safeguard reputation and financial stability.
Why Does a Business Continuity Plan Matter for UK Businesses?
The business landscape in the UK is increasingly recognising the importance of robust business continuity planning, reflecting heightened awareness of operational risks and disruptions.
Recent data from 2025 illustrates how organisations of all sizes are prioritising resilience strategies to prepare for and respond effectively to potential interruptions.
- 85% of UK firms now identify continuity planning as “essential,” compared to 56% a decade ago, with most keeping their plans updated and tested. (Source: SME Today, 2025)
- 72% of UK IT leaders reported experiencing significant disruptions in the past year, yet only 60% feel their organisations are ready to handle major interruptions (Source: Asanti, 2025)
- The implementation of business continuity plans addressing cyber security in UK SMEs increased by 53% in 2025, reflecting a rising commitment to cyber resilience (Source: GOV.UK, 2025)
These trends highlight why business continuity planning has become so vital: it enables organisations to maintain critical operations during disruptions, reducing downtime and financial impact. It can also strengthen overall resilience by helping teams prepare to respond swiftly and effectively to unexpected events such as cyber attacks, system failures or supply chain interruptions.
When Would a Business Continuity Plan Have Been Useful in 2025?
The Amazon Web Services outage in October 2025 highlighted the value of a well-structured Business Continuity Plan (BCP).
The event affected more than 3,500 companies worldwide and generated over 17 million outage reports on Downdetector, including more than 1.5 million from the UK, according to Ookla.
This kind of large-scale disruption demonstrates how continuity measures – such as multi-cloud strategies, offsite data backup, and rehearsed failover procedures, can help organisations maintain essential services and recover efficiently during unexpected events.
See our article on Recent Cyber Attacks – Year By Year, for more UK based examples.
Components to consider when building a business continuity plan:
A robust Business Continuity Plan (BCP) typically includes:
- Business impact analysis: Identifies critical activities and recovery timeframes
- Risk assessment: Pinpoints threats and vulnerabilities
- Continuity strategies: Defines how operations will be maintained or recovered
- Incident response: Sets out roles, responsibilities, and escalation paths
- Recovery procedures: Details step-by-step actions to resume key services
- Communication plans: Covers internal and external messaging during disruption
- Testing and review: Ensures the plan works and stays up to date
How Does a Disaster Recovery Plan Compare to a Business Continuity Plan?
A disaster recovery plan (DRP) works as a critical subset within the broader Business Continuity Plan. The BCP is the overarching strategy focused on keeping all essential business functions running during and after a disruption, while the DRP specifically covers the procedures and technologies required to recover IT systems and data.
|
Aspect |
Business Continuity Plan (BCP) |
Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) |
|---|---|---|
|
Scope |
Broad: all critical business functions |
Narrow: IT systems and data recovery |
|
Focus |
Keeping business operational during disruption |
Recovering systems after disruption |
|
Timing |
Activated immediately at disruption onset |
Activated after the disaster to restore systems |
|
Components |
Risk assessment, impact analysis, response, communication, contingencies |
Backup, recovery technologies, RTO, restoration procedures |
|
Goal |
Minimise downtime and keep business running |
Restore IT infrastructure and data quickly |
What’s the Difference Between a Business Continuity Plan and a Business Continuity Policy?
A Business Continuity Policy should work to explain an organisation’s general approach to staying resilient – what the organisation aims to protect, who is responsible and why continuity matters. On the flip side of this, a Business Continuity Plan is the practical document that shows exactly what to do during a disruption, including who to contact, how to keep key services running and how to recover quickly.
Download Our Business Continuity Policy Template.
What ISO Standards Does a Business Continuity Plan Relate To?
A BCP mainly supports the ISO 22301 Standard, but it also links to related standards that cover impact analysis, supply chain resilience, IT continuity and incident response, including ISO 27001.
Together, these standards help build a complete and structured approach to keeping the business running during disruptions.
How Does ISO 22301 and a Business Continuity Plan Work Together?
A Business Continuity Plan can link to the practical requirements in ISO 22301:2019 Clause 8, which focuses on how an organisation prepares for and responds to disruptions.
This part of the standard requires businesses to have clear, written procedures for what to do in an incident, who is responsible, how communication will work and how key activities will continue. It also requires organisations to test and update these plans regularly.
Taking the next step toward ISO 22301 certification? Speak to our team or get a quote today.
Download our free Business Continuity Plan (BCP) template to begin documenting your business continuity arrangements.
