§ Mr. DjanoglyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what additional expenditure over and above that identified prior to 1 April 2002(a) was 9W spent in 2002–03 and (b) will be spent in 2003–04 on national and regional resilience work for (i) dealing with mass fatalities and (ii) decontamination; whether arrangements exist to release expenditure during the current financial year for resilience projects currently under consideration for (A) dealing with mass fatalities and (B) decontamination; and if he will make a statement. [113926]
§ Mr. Blunkett[holding answer 16 May 2003]: The Government's Civil Contingencies Capabilities Programme has identified broad areas of activity under which Departments group specific projects, activity and programme expenditure. The purpose is to deliver broad generic capabilities which allow the UK to respond effectively to a wide range of disruptive challenges.
The Home Office assumed responsibility for the initial assessment of the mass fatalities resilience work in late 2002. Prior to this, work was carried out on fatalities but was judged not to necessitate a specific project and was incorporated in other resilience work. All expenditure in 2002–03 is therefore additional. In 2002–03 £15,000 has been used researching the preparedness of the emergency services. £65,000 has been provided for work on a temporary facility (organised by GOLondon) at Northolt Airport and is to be spent in 2003–04. Further to this spending any additional money for the current financial year will not be known until the completion of the initial assessment work. The central expenditure excludes all the related work under way in local authorities.
Decontamination is led by the Department of Health and supported by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister through Her Majesty's Fire Service Inspectorate. I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by the Minister of State, Department of Health, the right hon. Member for Barrow and Furness (Mr. Hutton), on 12 June 2003, Official Report, column 1068W, and my hon. Friend the former parliamentary Under-Secretary, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr. Leslie) on 26 June 2003, Official Report, column 900W. Within the Home Office the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Team works on CBRN resilience which includes decontamination. This is not quantifiable in financial terms as it is integrated with other aspects of CBRN planning.
The capabilities that we are working to deliver have been developed to allow the Government to deal with the fullest range of scenarios. Should a specific additional urgent operational need arise, at any point of the spending cycle, action would be taken to meet It. The public expenditure framework the Government have put in place provides the flexibility to deal with unexpected pressures.