About NILO
Our History
The role of the Inter-agency Liaison Officer (ILO) was developed in 2001 by the London Fire Brigade (LFB). After the initial development by LFB, several other Emergency Services introduced NILO officer within their agencies remit. This led to the roll out of a national standard of National Inter-agency Liaison Officers (NILOs).
The NILO function compliments existing Strategic, Tactical and Operational inter- agency coordination. Within the Incident Command System (ICS) the role is defined as: A vetted, trained, and identifiable responder from the emergency services who is a tactical adviser. They can support pre-planned or spontaneous operations at strategic, tactical, and operational levels, including facilitating interoperable working with partner agencies.
NILO
The NILO Coordination Office is located in London and provides the national NILO cadre with all relevant intelligence, communication and technical support to secure communication and information systems to support NILO working and multi-agency collaboration. The NCO work with all our emergency service partners to provide a 24/7 response to the dissemination of intelligence, operational assessment and information to ensure the NILO cadre are informed via secure communications and national coordination of secure briefings, as well as providing on going national CPD events, management of the NILO and NCLO courses and delegate and agency liaison.
Who we are
Assistant Commissioner Patrick Goulbourne is the NFCC Counter Terrorism (CT) National Coordinator, responsible for the United Kingdom’s NILO cadre, the National NILO Coordination Office and the NILO foundation course. The NILO foundation course delivers acquisition training for all UK emergency service NILOs, fire sector officers in National Counter Terrorism Headquarters (NCTPHQ) and regional lead and Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) embed officers. This role includes directly supporting the NFCC Marauding Terrorist Attacks (MTA) capability, in addition to leading Protective Security operations and the Prevent duty.
In 2017, he responded in various command roles to the terrorist attacks at Westminster Bridge, London Bridge, Finsbury Park, Parsons Green, Fishmongers Hall, the fire at Grenfell Tower, the New Providence Wharf fire in 2021 and the 19 July Wildfire in 2022.
Katie Devereux is the Head of the NCO which provides national communications, intelligence and information systems to the national NILO cadre across the Fire, Police, Ambulance, Military and Coastguard agencies. Her team are responsible for the delivery of 24/7 cadre support, the delivery of the accredited NILO and NCLO courses, NATO NILO courses, strategic business development and governance for the NILO national Programme.
Throughout her career she has been responsible for the delivery of various programmes including vetting and multi agency initial assessment team (MAIAT). As part of her role in the NCO she has also been involved in various major incidents including London Bridge, Westminster Bridge, 7/7 bombings and Operation Golden Orb.
NILO Foundation Course
The NILO Foundation course is an accredited multi-agency training course developed in partnership with The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), National Ambulance Resilience Unit (NARU) and the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) to improve co-operation, communication and understanding amongst the emergency services and other agencies on matters of organisational capacity, capabilities and command.
Designed for counter terrorism and other critical incidents, it has become the nationally agreed (operational and strategic) multi-agency advisory role across the emergency services.
NCLO Courses
The National Control Liaison Officer (NCLO) Course provides training to NILO Control Room Commanders and Managers to obtain the knowledge to be able to manage control room incidents and support operative NILO officers. This training was developed in partnership with the National Fire Chiefs Council. Courses provide in depth training on both the psychology element behind a person's decision making, and the legal implications of mitigating control room incidents sensitively. Other skills that training will enable the user to manage NILO CBRN response, conventional terrorism, marauding terrorist attacks, major incidents, police-led incidents and serious public disorders.
NATO NILO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is an intergovernmental military alliance of member states. Established in 1949, NATO is a collective security system: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by third parties. The NILO NATO course, funded by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Counter-terrorism, provided capacity building training in the United Kingdom for NATO partners in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Sahel. This training provides participants with the knowledge and skills to improve law enforcement inter-agency coordination from any terrorism, high threat or other critical incidents in their Country and is considered to be a separate course from the National courses. This course enhances the participants' ability to protect and serve within their communities.
The U.S. Department of State's recently published a DipNote on NILO's can be seen by the link below:
https://www.state.gov/a-counterterrorism-partnership-in-action-on-the-streets-of-london/
Future NILO NATO courses dates are not currently scheduled.
CPD Events
The NILO Coordination Office (NCO) organises national Continuous Professional Development (CPD) events to support NILO's in their continuous training to ensure competency of officers who undertake the role is current and up to date.
An in person CPD event is held every September and is open to all serving national NILO's. Speakers at the event will discuss in detail and present on a range of topics that are applicable to the NILO role and allows officers to network with other NILO’s across agencies from around the United Kingdom.
The NILO Coordination office also delivers online CPD events for NILO's via MS teams. These online sessions are held at regular intervals throughout the year where deep dive sessions deliver specific learning in regard to the topic or incident.
Planned topics that will be covered over the course of this year include inputs from RUSI, Emerging Risks within Terrorism, Far Right, case studies and briefings by Lead NILO's on high profile incidents.
Further information regarding the online events will be shared with NILO's.
Our Partners
NILO National Conference 2025
NILO National Conference - NEC Birmingham
The NILO National Conference is to be held on Thursday 18th September, at the NEC in Birmingham.
The conference is an excellent CPD opportunity, with world class speakers who deliver inputs related specifically to the NILO role. There is also time available to network with fellow NILOs from regions across the UK. The Conference is held alongside the Emergency Services Show.
Information regarding expressions of interest will be shared in the coming weeks.
