The CBI is urging businesses to improve their plans for coping with natural disasters in 2006.

Following December’s Buncefield oil depot blaze in Hemel Hempstead, the CBI is calling on businesses to put protecting staff and safeguarding buildings at the “top of their list of New Year's resolutions.�

CBI director-general Sir Digby Jones said:

“Everyone in business needs to spend some time this January reassessing their business risk.�

Sir Digby also said many firms still do not have plans in place to deal with disasters, despite Buncefield, the London bombings and a spate of hurricanes and earthquakes around the world.