§ Mr. Dobson asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, further to his answer of 26 October to the 411W hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras, South, if he will list the 17 Ministers appointed as sub-regional commissioners who will have places in bunkers in the event of nuclear attack; and how they were chosen.
§ Mr. Mayhew:Sub-regional commissioners are not appointed in peace time.
Mr. Ray Powell asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, further to his answer to the hon. Member for Ogmore, Official Report, 26 October, what criteria have been used to select representatives of key Government Departments; which would be the key Government Departments; who would be the Minister appointed as the sub-regional commissioner; and whether chief executive officers of local authorities, mayors, councillors, hon. Members and other local government officers would be included in the selected representative list.
§ Mr. Mayhew:Present plans provide for the following Government Departments to be represented at sub-regional headquarters in a war emergency:
- Home Office
- Department of Employment
- Department of Energy
- Department of the Environment
- Department of Health and Social Security
- Department of Industry
- Department of Trade
- Department of Transport
- Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
- Central Office of Information.
Each Department is responsible for nominating, from its staff, officers with the necessary expertise to undertake the duties that would be required of them.
Sub-regional commissioners are not designated in normal peace time. Local authorities are responsible for manning their own war time headquarters; their members and staff are not nominated for duty at sub—regional headquarters.
Information about the machinery of regional government in war is contained in Home Office circular ES7/1973, a copy of which is in the Library of the House.
Dr. Summerskill asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department from which Government Departments and which ministerial level the 17 Ministers who will act as sub—regional commissioners in the event of a nuclear attack will be chosen.
§ Mr. Mayhew:Sub—regional commissioners would be appointed by the Prime Minister at a time of war crisis. They are not designated in normal peace time.