§ Mrs. Bainasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement as to Her Majesty's Government's plans for new civil defence methods, including the possibility of using the North Sea civilian helicopter fleet as a back-up service in times of emergency.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesThere has been no recent change in the basis of home defence planning, which provides for air support to be made available to civil authorities by the armed services. In any emergency the helicopters which service gas and oil installations in the North Sea are likely to continue to be needed for that purpose, though this would not preclude their use elsewhere if circumstances made it essential.