HC Deb 19 July 1984 vol 64 cc292-3W
33. Mr. Neil Thorne

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action he proposes to encourage local authorities to recruit and train civil

53. Sir William van Straubenzee

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has for the future co-ordination nationally of civil defence volunteers.

Mr. Hurd

This Government have consistently maintained full support for the effective involvement of volunteers in civil defence planning, and have lost no opportunity to persuade local authorities to take the necessary steps. The new civil defence regulations, which came into force last December, extended the specific duties of local authorities in respect of volunteers. The new principal of the Civil Defence college, who will assume the responsibilities of the co-ordinators of voluntary effort in England and Wales and in Scotland on their retirement this year, will have the resources of the college directly available to help him, and the findings of the working party on standardisation of volunteer training upon which to base and support further work.

39. Dr. Michael Clark

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will estimate the total cost of paying 100 per cent. grant aid to local authorities for all expenditure relating to civil defence volunteers.

Mr. Hurd

Grant at 100 per cent. is available only for the out-of-pocket and exercise expenses of volunteers. For all other volunteer expenditure the rate is 75 per cent. For 1984–85 it is estimated that local authorities will spend a total of approximately £1 million on volunteers upon which sum grant at the appropriate rate will fall to be calculated.

Mr. Tony Banks

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what are the terms of reference and membership of the working party on the training of civil defence volunteers; and if he will place the minutes of the working party in the Library.

Mr. Hurd

The terms of reference and membership of the working party on the standardisation of training of civil defence volunteers are as follows. When its report has been received, I will arrange for a copy to be placed in the Library.

Terms of Reference

On the assumption: that those sections of the new statutory planning regulations relating to the harnessing of voluntary effort in civil defence are adopted in their present (draft) form; that the objective of the Government's policy on voluntary effort in civil defence remains as defined in ES 2/1981 Part II; and that local authorities are in the main persuaded to organise their voluntary support along the lines recommended in the above-mentioned guidance circular.

to:

  1. a. identify in broad terms the tasks that will fall to be done 293 by volunteers in support of the institutional emergency services in war and in sustaining life in communities in the immediate aftermath of nuclear attack;
  2. b. in the light of the above, to define the skills that will be required of individual volunteers in discharging the specific civil defence roles and tasks assigned to them;
  3. c. to consider where the responsibility for the training of civil defence volunteers should be laid (or how it should be apportioned) to best advantage, with particular regard to the extent to which the volunteers themselves should be involved in this function;
  4. d. to examine the feasibility of devising a generally acceptable standard pattern and syllabus of training for each category of local civil defence volunteer;
  5. e. should this feasibility be established to the satisfaction of the working party, to examine the case for standardising instructional methods and to consider how best to achieve such standardisation as may be required;
  6. f. to make recommendations in respect of c-e (above) and to outline the Working Party's proposed course of further action towards the achievement of standardisation.

Membership

  • G.E. Harrison (Chairman) Acting Principal, Civil Defence College
  • K. H. Cooper F6 Division, Home Office
  • W. R. Holland CEPO Merseyside Metropolitan County Council
  • D. K. C. Jeffrey Scottish Home and Health Department
  • T. S. B. McNeil REPO, Grampian Regional Council
  • Wg. Cdr. N. A. D. Nugent RAF (Retd) CEPO Surrey County Council
  • Col. J. D. Shallow MC (Retd) Group Director, Civil Defence College
  • A. Tinsley CEPO Nottinghamshire County Council.

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