Resource
Incident priority matrix (P1–P4)
A four-level priority scheme for event control, with the response expectation for each level agreed before the event.
Details
- Last revised
- 10/02/2026
- Reading time
- 4 min
- Cost
- Free, no email required
Priorities are only useful if they were agreed before anyone was under pressure. Publish the matrix at the briefing and put it on the control room wall.
The levels
- P1 — life at risk, or an event-affecting failure. Immediate response, supervisor and event manager notified without waiting.
- P2 — serious injury, violence, safeguarding, structural or capacity concern. Response within minutes, supervisor notified.
- P3 — routine incident: minor medical, ejection, lost property with a child involved, equipment failure with a workaround.
- P4 — informational: a note the record needs but which requires no dispatch.
Making it work
Set the priority when the entry is written and let it be raised later by amendment. Arguing the level down after the event is a bad look; raising it in the moment costs nothing.
Read next
Or see it running
Vantra Control Room does all of this as a by-product of the shift, rather than as a document written afterwards.