The violence that rocked the UK’s biggest cities during the riots of 2011 accounted for almost 60% of the business continuity plans being invoked during August 2011, according to Phoenix which has today published results from its annual invocation statistics survey.

With just one month to go until the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, businesses should be looking at the final priorities and steps to be taken to ensure operations remain productive, while employees also enjoy the Games.

A flexible working approach will minimise employee absenteeism during the London 2012 Olympic Games, SunGard Availability Services have said. Keith Tilley, managing director, UK, and executive vice-president, Europe, said that organisations should put measures to keep workers content “high on the priority list”.

Transport for London will be hosting a live Twitter chat this week aimed at helping businesses and commuters to plan ahead of the London 2012 Games. TfL will be joined by experts from Unilever and Sagicor at Lloyd’s, who will answer questions to help Britain’s employers and commuters plan their transport and flexible working plans during Games time. The chat will be hosted by the official London 2012/TfL Get Ahead of the Games transport advice Twitter feed @GAOTG, using the hashtag #GAOTG.

The six-month Atlantic hurricane season, which officially started on June 1st, has begun in earnest early with two tropical storms hitting the United States before the season had even begun. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that there will be about "12 named storms with six hurricanes, including three major hurricanes," this season.

Over a third of manufacturers in Europe are continuing to focus on the risk, reliability and flexibility in their supply chain, which remains one of their biggest challenges. The survey also found that the growing trend for near shoring manufacturing facilities closer to end markets was felt by the majority to be an effective way of improving risk management.

The winners of the 2012 Business Continuity Awards were announced last night at a prestigious awards ceremony held at the Hilton on Park Lane, London. Presented with his trophy by comedian Adam Hill and Chris McBrayne of IBM's Business Continuity & Resiliency Services was the 2012 Business Continuity Manager of the Year, Matt Dyckhoff of Nomura International. Read on for a complete list of this year's industry stars.

The British Standards Institution has launched a new international standard business continuity management, ISO 22301. The new standard has evolved from the internationally recognised British Standard BS 25999 – which outlines an approach to implement precautionary measures against issues such as strikes, mass supply chain disruption, political unrest and customer loss.

When it comes to business continuity planning, UK businesses are much better prepared for technology and environmental risks than they are for the risk of losing talent. This is the key finding of a new report which explores attitudes towards risk, based on interviews with 615 UK senior managers conducted on behalf of Vodafone UK. This is despite the growing need to attract and retain the best talent and the relatively high probability of talent leaving or becoming unavailable for work.

ACE and Willis Re Analytics has launched the ACE Cat Web platform to help companies evaluate their own catastrophe exposures, as well as those of their suppliers and customers. Following the worst ever year for global catastrophe losses in 2011, which highlighted the vulnerability of many companies’ operations to supply chain interruption, the web-based platform is designed to help businesses understand better their catastrophe risk profile and accumulations in different locations.

Aon is urging firms to ensure threats to business continuity are considered as 37 countries were regraded in its 2012 Terrorism & Political Violence Map. As austerity measures and spending cuts took hold throughout 2012, civil unrest, riots, strikes and student protests were witnessed across large parts of Europe. The UK, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain were all regraded from low to medium risk. Dramatic political change in the Arab world continued to cause aftershocks in that region and beyond.

While the Business Continuity Awards 2012 are now closed for entries, there is still time to vote for this year's Industry Personality of the Year . This year's finalists are Will Brown, head of business resilience, KPMG UK; Drew Gibson, business continuity manager, Canary Wharf Group; Gayle Hedgecock, payments integrity consultant, UK Payments; Colin Ive, founding director, CoDRIM; Andy Tomkinson, Olympic Park incident management & business continuity, LOCOG & the Paralympic Games; and Kathryn Wakeman, managing director, global T&O controls oversight, JP Morgan Chase & Co.

With the Rail Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) union having announced plans to strike for 72 hours from 16:00GMT on the 24th of April, the industrial action could have severe implications for the London transport network, affecting underground lines and potentially causing disruption to thousands of commuters. SunGard has produced a series of tips for businesses seekign to minimise the impact of disruption.

The Business Continuity Awards recognise the endeavours of business continuity, security, resilience and risk professionals. Judged by an independent panel of experts for exceptional performance, service and results in this dynamic industry, this year's winners will be announced and awarded at the Gala Dinner on Wednesday 30th May 2012 – an evening that brings together industry leaders for a night of networking and celebration. This year's shortlist follows...

The gap between the perception of overseas medical and health risk and the reality is widening, according to medical risk professionals at International SOS. This is particularly prevalent in the BRICS countries, as well as in Argentina, Azerbaijan, Chile, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Peru, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.