§ Mr. Rookerasked the Lord President of the Council if he will make a statement on the fire drill held on Thursday 22 July at Norman Shaw North building; and how long it took the fire service to arrive.
§ Mr. BiffenI am pleased to report that the full fire exercise which was carried out in Norman Shaw North building on Thursday 22 July went extremely satisfactorily. I am grateful to the fire officer, fire service and the occupants of the building for their co-operation. As the fire service was aware in advance that the exercise was to be held, it did not travel to it as though responding to a genuine emergency call.
A number of valuable lessons were learnt from the exercise and these will be studied and acted upon with a view to improving fire fighting and life saving techniques in the precincts. I expect the scope of instruction to Members and their staffs, and to staff of the House, to be widened in the light of the experience which has been gained. There will be further practices in due course.