§ Mrs. Ray MichieTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if proposals for local authorities to carry out the duties of the Royal Observer Corps outlined in his answer to the hon. Member for Westminster, North (Sir J. Wheeler) on 10 July 1991,Official Report, columns 393–96, will include extending the VHF radio network to local authorities; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. John PattenLocal authorities have had a statutory planning responsibility for civil defence arrangements, including communications arrangements, since 1983.
The Home Office is considering the re-allocation to local authorities of the radio equipment previously used by the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation and the Royal Observer Corps in order to improve the facilities already provided by the emergency communications network.
§ Mrs. Ray MichieTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans exist at present for the monitoring of nuclear burst information and radiation levels; what provisions govern the issue of dose rate meters; how these functions will continue after the abolition of the Royal Observer Corps; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. John PattenMy right hon. Friend announced on 10 July that the arrangements for monitoring nuclear bursts and radioactive fallout in wartime must be restructured. The Royal Observer Corps has therefore stood down from its operational monitoring role at the end of September 1991.
A radiation monitoring capacity has been planned and developed by local authorities since 1983. A total of 57,000 17W portable dose rate meters were issued to local authorities and the police and fire service in the mid-1980s and 22,000 meters have also been issued to other Government Departments. A further 9,000 are held in store to supplement existing issues stocks as necessary.
We intend to issue further guidance, in the new year, to local authorities on the new monitoring arrangements which were outlined in my right hon. Friend's July statement.