§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what resources he has allocated to improve civil contingency plans for the Portsmouth area in the event of a terrorist attack in the last two years; and if he will make a statement. [105354]
§ Mr. AlexanderCentral Government provides funds, in the form of civil defence grant, for local authority emergency planning and civil contingency planning.
The allocations of civil defence grant for Portsmouth city council and Hampshire county council from 2000–01 onwards are detailed in the following table.
Local authority Portsmouth Hampshire 2000–01 48, 000 229, 824 2001–02 78, 999 276,770 2002–03 74, 081 298,610 2003–04 74,467 298,996 Local authorities often supplement the civil defence grant from their revenue support grant. I understand that Portsmouth city council budgeted to provide an additional £17,304 in 2002–03 and £20,533 in 2003–04 and that Hampshire county council budgeted to provide an additional £326,900 in 2002–03 and £336,600 in 2003–04.
The civil defence grant is just part of central Government funding for planning for and responding to emergencies. Central Government provides substantial funds to other local responders, including the emergency services and health authorities.