§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list those regional and island authorities with an operational (i) main and (ii) standby emergency centre, and those district authorities that have an operational emergency centre.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonOn the basis of returns provided by local authorities for October 1987, information about operational emergency centres which meet the standards set out in the emergency planning guidance to local authorities is as follows:
Regions
- Borders Region—Main and standby
- Grampian Region—Main and standby
Districts
- Gordon1
- Kincardine and Deeside1
- Roxburgh
- Tweeddale1
1 Co-ordinated with a regional emergency centre.
§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will identify those local authorities that will receive civil defence grant towards the construction or conversion of emergency centres during each of the years 1988–89, 1989–90 and 1990–91; and if he will indicate the likely scale of the provision involved in each year.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonGrant-eligible expenditure on civil defence capital projects, predominantly, but not exclusively, emergency centres, is expected to be £904,000 in 1988–89, £948,000 in 1989–90, and £995,000 in 1990–91. It is expected that Orkney islands council and Dumfries and Galloway regional council will receive further grant to complete their emergency centres in 1988–89. Details of other authorities receiving grant will not be available until the relevant expenditure has been approved.
§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will identify those local authorities that have received civil defence grant towards the construction or conversion of emergency centres during each of the years 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87 and 1987–88; and if he will indicate the scale of the expenditure involved in each year.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThe information is not available in this form for 1984–85 or 1985–86. In 1986–87, grant towards the construction or conversion of emergency centres was paid to Grampian and Borders regional councils and in 1987–88 to these two councils and to Dumfries and Galloway regional council and Roxburgh district council. Expenditure attracting grant was £92,064 in 1986–87 and is expected to be £433,514 in 1987–88.
§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many local authority emergency centres have been inspected by officials from his Department; and if he is satisfied with the facilities provided by local authorities for emergency communications and control.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonAll the operational emergency centres have been visited by Scottish Office404W officials. Steps have been taken to remedy deficiencies in communications facilities identified as a result of these visits.