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 ILOs within their agencies' remit. This led to the roll out of a national standard of National Interagency Liaison Officers (NILOs).
The NILO function complements existing strategic, tactical and operational interagency coordination. The role of a NILO 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 Coordination Office
The NILO Coordination Office (NCO) 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 works 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) embedded 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 wildfire on 19 July 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), NHS Emergency Capabilities Unit (NHS ECU) 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 provides will enable the user to manage NILO CBRN response, conventional terrorism, marauding terrorist attacks, major incidents, police-led incidents and serious public disorders.
CPD Events
The NILO Coordination Office (NCO) organises national Continuous Professional Development (CPD) events to support NILOs in their continuous training, to ensure competency of officers who undertake the role is current and up-to-date.
The NILO National Conference is a CPD event that is held every September, and is open to all serving national NILOs. Speakers at the event will discuss in detail, and present on a range of topics that are applicable to the NILO role. This allows officers to network with other NILOs across agencies from around the United Kingdom.
The NILO Coordination Office also delivers online CPD events for NILOs 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 Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Emerging Risks within Terrorism, Far Right, case studies and briefings by Lead NILOs on high profile incidents.
The NILO Coordination Office also supports local CPD, with regions encouraged to run multi-agency CPD sessions on a regular basis.
Online CPD Schedule
CPD dates will be added throughout the year by the NILO Coordination Office
NATO NILO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (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 for 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 their communities.
Further NILO NATO courses will take place in the near future.
Our Partners
NILO National Conference 2025
NILO National Conference - NEC Birmingham
The NILO National Conference was held on Thursday 18 September, at the NEC in Birmingham.
The conference provided an excellent CPD opportunity, with world class speakers who delivered inputs related specifically to the NILO role. There was also time available to network with fellow NILOs from regions across the UK.
The Conference was also held alongside the Emergency Services Show.
Information regarding the NILO National Conference for 2026, and further NILO events will be shared via NILO info note. For further information, please contact the NILO Coordination Office
