HC Deb 20 November 1986 vol 105 cc680-1
7. Dr. Blackburn

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what civil defence publications he hopes to produce for the general public in the near future.

The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Douglas Hurd)

We shall be producing a film with supporting printed material, including a booklet, leaflet and a new quarterly periodical, in a few weeks' time.

Dr. Blackburn

Will my right hon. Friend inform the House of any other publication which the Home Office will issue to the public, especially on protection, which is something which applies in war and in peace-time?

Mr. Hurd

Yes, of course. The link is made much clearer by the Civil Protection in Peacetime Act 1985. In addition to updating and introducing new printed material, we are producing a programme that is designed to induce local authorities to face their obligations under the 1983 regulations.

Mr. Heffer

When the material is produced, will the Home Secretary take into account the fact that the local authority that has responsibility for Hertford, where I was born, has said that it will cost £8 million to build bombproof shelters to protect the people of that small town? Will the right hon. Gentleman take that into consideration? Is he prepared to agree to some scheme being implemented throughout the country that might save some people if the Government are not to get rid of nuclear weapons?

Mr. Hurd

When the material is produced, it will become clear all over again that civil defence is not confined to nuclear attack. Even in the event of nuclear attack, the survival of substantial numbers could depend on whether elementary precautions have been taken, without the massive shelter-building programme that the hon. Gentleman has mentioned.

Mr. Neil Thorne

Can my right hon. Friend assure me that when the material is produced it will pay due regard to the fact that the Soviet Union still has 300,000 tonnes of chemical weapons, which could be fired at us? The material that is to be produced should pay due attention to anything that we could suffer on that account. Our unilateral action has accounted for nothing and puts the perspective of unilateral nuclear disarmament into true perspective.

Mr. Hurd

That is why our representatives have been active in trying to negotiate a chemical weapons agreement in Geneva and have put forward proposals in that way. A proper chemicals agreement with proper verification is the best way. My hon. Friend the Member for Ilford, South (Mr. Thorne) is right. Failing that, or pending that, we are considering the nature and extent of the protection that can sensibly be provided.

Mr. Freeson

As the Government seem, in the voice of the Prime Minister, to be insisting on maintaining the possibility of nuclear warfare should there be an outbreak of war between ourselves and the Soviet Union, why does the Home Secretary set aside so briefly the question of civil defence air raid shelters? If the Government are really serious about civil defence, why do they not undertake a programme of building civil defence shelters, which will at least save many people's lives in the event of nuclear war?

Mr. Hurd

It is precisely thanks to the existence of the deterrent and our intention to maintain it that the risk of war is low. That being so, we must strike a balance in civil defence between measures that ,would provide protection in the case of that sort of attack and the other claims on resources. During the past few years we have struck that balance more sensibly than have any previous Government.