JESIP • Major incident report

M/ETHANE / ETHANE police meaning

Major incident scene report (JESIP standard). A quick, source-backed reference for the UK policing mnemonic M/ETHANE.

Short answer

The single agreed structure for the first resources on scene (and every responder agency) to pass a situation report to their control room at a major incident, establishing shared situational awareness across police, fire and ambulance. Trained to all UK emergency services since December 2013 under JESIP and recommended for use on all incidents, updated as the incident develops.

Legal anchor: JESIP Joint Doctrine: The Interoperability Framework

M/ETHANE
JESIP Joint Doctrine: The Interoperability Framework
MMajor incident declared? (Include date/time of declaration and which organisation declared)
EExact location — be as accurate as possible: street names, landmarks, building numbers, postcodes, GPS/what3words
TType of incident — e.g. road traffic collision, explosion, building collapse, flooding, HazMat
HHazards — present or suspected, and those that could potentially arise
AAccess — routes that are safe to use, any inaccessible routes, and rendezvous points (RVPs)
NNumber of casualties — numbers, type and severity of injuries
EEmergency services — which are present and those required

When officers use it

The single agreed structure for the first resources on scene (and every responder agency) to pass a situation report to their control room at a major incident, establishing shared situational awareness across police, fire and ambulance. Trained to all UK emergency services since December 2013 under JESIP and recommended for use on all incidents, updated as the incident develops.

Practical point: the mnemonic is a memory aid, not the test. Decisions still turn on the live facts and the underlying law (JESIP Joint Doctrine: The Interoperability Framework) — record your rationale, not just the letters.

Variants and spellings

Written 'M/ETHANE' by JESIP to show the M (Major incident declared?) is a threshold question; older material and the 2016 control-room guide write it 'METHANE'. Drops to an ETHANE message below the major-incident threshold.

ETHANE — Incident scene report below major-incident threshold

The same JESIP report structure as M/ETHANE minus the leading 'Major incident declared?' question. JESIP doctrine states that for incidents falling below the major-incident threshold an M/ETHANE report 'becomes an ETHANE message'; responders periodically reconsider the 'M' via the Joint Decision Model as the incident develops.

ETHANE
JESIP Joint Doctrine: The Interoperability Framework
EExact location
TType of incident
HHazards — present or suspected
AAccess — routes that are safe to use
NNumber of casualties
EEmergency services — present and required
Note: Not a separate mnemonic — it is M/ETHANE with the M unanswered/negative. Wikipedia frames it the other way round (METHANE 'adds' the M prompt to ETHANE); JESIP doctrine treats M/ETHANE as primary.

Why Section includes this

Section is a fast UK police reference app for officers and student officers: offences, points to prove, PACE powers and the standard mnemonics in one offline place. Every entry in the app — including this one — was verified against the sources listed below.

What does M/ETHANE stand for?

M = Major incident declared?, E = Exact location, T = Type of incident, H = Hazards, A = Access, N = Number of casualties, E = Emergency services.

Is M/ETHANE a law?

No — it is a memory aid used in UK police training. The underlying framework is JESIP Joint Doctrine: The Interoperability Framework.

Are there variants of M/ETHANE?

Written 'M/ETHANE' by JESIP to show the M (Major incident declared?) is a threshold question; older material and the 2016 control-room guide write it 'METHANE'. Drops to an ETHANE message below the major-incident threshold.

Sources

CHALET — Legacy major incident scene report GOWISELY — Stop and search — information the officer must give (PACE s2 / Code A) IDCOPPLAN — Arrest necessity criteria ('ID COP PLAN') — PACE s24 / Code G

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