§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Don Valley of 20 June 1988,Official Report, column 415, if he will provide details and costs of the National Health Service participation in the military home defence exercises Eastern Shield, Capital Guard, Drake's Drum, Autumn Tiger, Northern Crusade, Western Encounter, Triple Crown and Strong Link.
66W
§ Mr. FreemanCertain NHS authorities participated to a limited extent and on a voluntary basis in some of these exercises, Participation mainly involved ambulance services, some hospital accident and emergency departments and emergency planning staff. The costs were contained within NHS budgets. The exercises provided health authorities with useful insight into NHS civil defence planning problems as well as valuable major accident practice.