Under the Emergency Management Act 1986, the Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) is required to audit every Municipal Emergency Management Plan (MEMP) at least once every three years.

VICSES, in collaboration with Victoria Police, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Municipal Association of Victoria and individual councils and Alpine Resort Management Boards, is committed to continuously improving the audit process. To this effect, a review of the audit process and documents was conducted in early 2017 and the revised audit material is now available. The intention of this review was to update the audit material to ensure consistency with current legislation and guidelines, and to provide better guidance and clarity for councils, stakeholders and auditors on the intent and purpose of each audit question. These new documents were pilot tested throughout May 2017, and learnings from this testing period have been incorporated into the final audit documents. 

From 1 June 2017, all audits will be conducted using the new workbook. While this review is intended to make it easier for councils to provide relevant evidence, VICSES recognises that some councils with upcoming audits may not have time to address the recent changes to the criteria before their audit date. Therefore, councils audited between 1 June 2017 and 31 August 2017 will have the opportunity to revert to the old audit workbook (Version 2.1, September 2012) where they are unable to meet the new criteria, but would have been able to meet the old criteria. If the audit panel is satisfied that the evidence provided meets the old criteria, the council will be found compliant for that question. From 1 September 2017, all councils will be audited against the new criteria only.

Current audit documents:

Past audit documents:

Policy and procedure documents for the MEMP audit process are currently being reviewed and will be made available as soon as possible.