HC Deb 09 July 1940 vol 362 cc1092-4
Mr. Lees-Smith

May I ask you, Mr. Speaker, a question of which I have given you private notice, namely, whether you can give the House any guidance on the procedure which should be followed in the event of air raids?

Mr. Speaker

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for giving me notice of this question. I have taken the opportunity of consulting the Palace of Westminster A.R.P. Committee, who are responsible for the scheme which covers the whole of the building. The committee considered whether the suspension of a Sitting should continue to follow automatically on the receipt of an "Air Raid Imminent" warning, or should be left to the discretion of the Chair, and recommended unanimously that no change should be made in the existing procedure. With this recommendation I fully agree. The duty of deciding whether or not to ignore an air-raid warning is not one that can fairly be placed upon the occupant of the Chair—who may be myself, or the Chairman of Ways and Means, or the Deputy-Chairman, or one of the panel of Temporary Chairmen—since he has no means of assessing the degree of risk to which he may be subjecting those present in the Chamber, many of whom are not Members, on any particular occasion.

I think some hon. Members may have forgotten the details of the agreed procedure in connection with air raids; and that it is not generally realised that the arrangements for this House, like those for another place, form part of and must conform to the general scheme for the whole building. I am, accordingly, arranging to circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT the relevant words of Part V of the general scheme, which deals especially with this House, together with a summary of the grounds upon which the A.R.P. Committee based their recommendation.

Mr. Lees-Smith

May I ask the Lord Privy Seal whether, having now received the guidance of Mr. Speaker, he proposes to introduce a new Resolution on the subject?

Mr. Thorne

For the guidance of hon. Members, Mr. Speaker, may I ask you to say what is to be done for the people in the Gallery?

Mr. Speaker

That is all included in the scheme.

Mr. Attlee

I think, in view of what has been said by Mr. Speaker, that the House will now realise the need for some regularisation of the procedure, and I propose to introduce a Resolution.

Following is an extract from Part V of the Air-Raid Precautions Scheme (Palace of Westminster): On receipt of the warning 'Air Raid Imminent' the occupant of the Speaker's Chair or the occupant of the Chairman of Ways and Means Chair will thereupon suspend the sitting of the House or of the Committee as the case may be, and the Bar Messengers will call out to the Doorkeeper, 'Air Raid, Sitting Suspended.' The Doorkeeper will then call out 'Air Raid' in the same way as he would call out 'Division,' but he will not ring the Division Bell. 'Air Raid' will be repeated by the Police throughout the precincts of the Palace of Westminster. This warning will be reinforced by sharp blasts on a whistle; these should not be continued unnecessarily. … If an air raid should occur without previous warning, the occupant of the Speaker's or Chairman of Ways and Means Chair will immediately suspend the Sitting. Members of Parliament and other persons will then be instructed by Doorkeepers, Messengers and Police to proceed immediately and quietly to the Refuges as laid down. 'Air Raid Over' will be communicated by the Telephone Exchange to Refuge Headquarters. Five minutes after 'Air Raid Over' the Doorkeeper will ring the bell and on the Speaker resuming the Chair will call 'Speaker in the Chair,' which will be repeated as usual.

Following is a summary of reasons submitted by A.R.P. Committee to Mr. SPEAKER with reference to the suspension of the Sitting during an Air-Raid Warning: Under the present arrangements the action to be taken on receipt of an air-raid warning or if an air raid occurs without warning is as indicated above. After careful consideration the Committee unanimously resolved to recommend to the Speaker that this system, which had been decided upon after mature deliberation, should be adhered to, for the following reasons:

  1. (1) To leave to the discretion of the Speaker, or Chairman, or to one of the Temporary Chairmen the decision whether or not to adjourn when a Red Warning had been given and the sirens were sounding outside was to impose upon him an almost impossible task.
  2. (2) On what principle was the Speaker, or the Chairman, to decide exactly at 1094 what moment he would adjourn the House, if he was not guided by the Red Warning?
  3. (3) Practically it would be more than inconvenient—indeed impossible—to have one system for the Chamber and another for the rest of the building. The telephone operators are situated at the top of the building and on a Red Warning immediately vacate these premises and go to the refuge telephone room. In the meanwhile telephonic communication is interrupted. It would appear impossible to order persons not in the Chamber, including Members, kitchen staff, workmen and the public, to remain where they were and not go to the refuges until the Speaker had suspended the Sitting. How are they to be told when he had done so? Many officials have duties to perform in refuges as wardens or sub-wardens and must take up their positions upon the Red Warning being given. If the present arrangements are departed from, there is a grave danger that whilst the House continued to sit some of the Members and some of the staff might be going to the refuge, and general confusion might ensue. In the opinion of the Committee it is vital that there should be a uniform system throughout the building, including both Chambers.
  4. (4) There is no analogy between factories engaged upon urgent war work and the sitting of the Houses of Parliament as some of the speakers on the Lord Privy Seal's Motion appeared to think. These factories, for the most part, work on a 24-hour shift. Any interruption, therefore, in the 24 hours caused by air raids is time lost for ever in the manufacture of essential war production. But the House of Commons does not habitually sit for 24 hours, and any time lost by the suspension of the sitting during an air raid can be made up as was proposed in the Motion.
  5. (5) The principle urged upon all persons during an air raid is to scatter and take cover and is strongly advocated by the Ministry of Home Security, who have expressed the hope that no change will be made in the present proposals as to the action to be taken on an air raid warning.
  6. (6) If the House was to continue to sit after a Red Warning had been given, all in the Chamber would be running a considerable risk because the Chamber is one of the most vulnerable parts of the building. Such a course would also nullify the arrangements now made to eliminate casualties among Ministers and others by dispersal. At present they are distributed among the different refuges. This arrangement has been made on the express request of the Minister of Home Security and ought not lightly to be abandoned."