Emergency Planning (Hansard, 15 October 2002)

§ Mr. Francois
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what resources the Government are allocating to emergency planning over one period covered by the Comprehensive Spending Review, broken down into annual budget totals. [73772]

§ Mr. Alexander
The Government has allocated £19.038 million Civil Defence Grant to local authorities in England and Wales for each of the years 2003–04, 2004–05 and 2005–06.

§ Mr. Francois
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps Government is taking to prevent local authorities from spending emergency planning funds on other areas. [73775]

§ Mr. Alexander
The Civil Defence Grant provided to local authorities in England and Wales is a specific grant that must be used for emergency planning. The financial accounts of local authorities are audited to ensure this.

§ Mr. Francois
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, for what reason the Government reduced the Civil Defence Grant budget for emergency planning in 2002. [73776]

§ Mr. Alexander
The Civil Defence Grant budget was not reduced for 2002–03. The Government allocated £18.97 million to local authorities in England and Wales for 2002–03, which was the same amount as in the previous year.