Emergency Planning (Hansard, 25 March 2003)

§ Lord Falconer of Thoroton
My Lords, the emergency services warn and advise those in the immediate vicinity of an incident. Away from the incident the public will be advised if necessary in line with the Government's "Go In, Stay In, Tune In" doctrine. We have made arrangements for the media to transmit detailed warning advice and guidance to the public by TV, radio, Teletext, Ceefax and through websites as appropriate. Such arrangements are appropriate to existing and anticipated threat levels.

§ Viscount Astor
My Lords, I thank the noble and learned Lord for his Answer. Is he aware that his department—the Home Office—put out on its website last week suggestions that we all should buy bottled water, have a torch and buy tinned food? Is he also 653 aware that many of us do not spend all our time surfing the Home Office website? If that advice was supposed to be taken seriously, does he not think that it should have been put out by other means as well?

§ Lord Falconer of Thoroton
My Lords, the Home Office website put out a series of sensible tips in relation to what to do, which included having a radio, batteries and some canned food at home. That is not a suggestion to stockpile. It is sensible. It has been widely promulgated. It is the sensible way forward. Remember that when an incident occurs the emergency services will give directions to those in the immediate vicinity. That is the right approach.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I remind the noble and learned Lord that I have been asking questions for almost two years now about the National Attack Warning System, which is not yet fully operational. It seems extraordinary that, when a threat to homeland security has never been higher in a long time, this system is not yet fully operational. Does the noble and learned Lord think it would be better to set government targets for their own performance and not levy them on all other bodies?

§ Lord Falconer of Thoroton
My Lords, we think the ability to warn and to respond to an incident is appropriate to the level of threat at the moment. As to the question of whether one can evacuate an area, for example, in the middle of a town, I simply draw the attention of the House to what happened in Manchester in the mid-1990s when there was a major threat; 75,000 people were evacuated from the centre of Manchester in 90 minutes. That shows how efficiently the emergency services operate.

§ Lord Quirk
My Lords, on a point at a more modest level of sophistication, will the Government note the importance of simple clarity on public address systems? While within trains the PA has dramatically improved over the past five years, on mainline and underground stations the PA remains very bad and potentially dangerously bad. Should not those making announcements be given specific training in empathising with the unfortunate listeners—their passengers, customers and the public at large—who are unable to understand what is always important and may in the current context of terrorism be potentially lifesaving?

§ Lord Falconer of Thoroton
My Lords, I could not agree more with the proposition that if one has a public address system, whether on a train, in a railway station or anywhere else, the announcement being made should be audible to the listener. I agree with the noble Lord that there is nothing more irritating than having an announcement going on which you cannot quite hear because the system is not quite up to it. That is particularly important in relation to public transport.

§ Lord Dholakia
My Lords, one of the recommendations made by the national steering 654 committee was that there should be a computerised system by which messages are sent to all telephone lines and mobile phones. The Government rejected that. Has any progress been made on that front rather than simply to relying on messages on television or radio?

§ Lord Falconer of Thoroton
My Lords, as regards the current level of threat, messages would be disseminated by, as I have indicated, television, radio and website. Messages can also be disseminated through mobile telephones. That is something that the emergency services are developing.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, in Answer to a Written Question the noble Lord, Lord Macdonald of Tradeston, said: Further work on procedural documents is scheduled for completion by the end of the current financial year".—[Official Report, 12/3/03; col. WA188.] That was in connection with the attack warning system. Will the noble and learned Lord tell us—as it is only four weeks away—whether that work is complete? Will he also comment on the fact that the Minister for homeland security has resigned from the Government and has not yet been replaced? Is this not a very bad time to have a vacancy in that particular post?

§ Lord Falconer of Thoroton
My Lords, as far as concerns the noble Baroness's first question, perhaps I may write to her. As regards her second question, the Home Secretary is the Secretary of State responsible for internal security. He remains in post.