Scottish Emergency Co-ordinating Committee

HC Deb 13 February 1985 vol 73 c212W

Mr. Strang

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) who leads the Scottish Emergency Co-ordinating Committee; and who are the other members of this committee;

(2) where the Scottish Emergency Co-ordinating Committee meets and functions;

(3) what powers the Scottish Emergency Co-ordinating Committee has (a) under his Department, (b) under the Scottish regional commissioner and (c) in the event of neither superior authority being effectively operational;

(4) what overlap there is between the composition of the Scottish Emergency Co-ordinating Committee and the composition of the wartime regional government teams.

Mr. Ancram

The Scottish Emergency Co-ordinating Committee (formerly the Scottish Central Co-ordinating Committee) is chaired by a senior officer of the Scottish Home and Health Department. Its members are officials of a number of Government Departments and other public bodies, but those attending at any given time would depend on the nature of the peacetime emergency with which it had to deal. It has not met since 1979 but would do so, when required, in Edinburgh. Its composition and that of the wartime regional government teams reflect broadly the same range of departments and bodies, but the individual representatives would be different. In a period of tension or war its function, as in peacetime, would be to assist the Scottish Home and Health Department to co-ordinate the supply and distribution of essential supplies and services. The committee as such has no powers: its members would exercise such powers as might be delegated to them by their Ministers or employers.

It is not likely to have a role under the Scottish Regional Commission.