§ Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to hold an exercise in a major United Kingdom city to test the preparedness of the relevant services in the event of a biological terrorist attack. [131656]
§ Mr. BlunkettMy Department has plans for, or involvement in, a number of exercises over the coming months as part of a regular programme of counter-terrorism exercises. The programme has been in place well before 11 September 2001.
Other Departments such as the Department of Health as well as local government and local emergency services also run exercises to test procedures and equipment across agencies. Some are based in cities such as the recent exercise at Bank Station, others are planned for areas where procedures can be practised with minimal disruption to the public, as well as through tabletop exercises.
As I announced in July 2003, we are embarking on a broader programme of exercises, and, where in the past such exercises were usually conducted in private, we aim to put as much information in the public domain as we can without providing information that may be useful to terrorists. Further information about counter-terrorism 319W exercises is available on the Home Office website at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/terrorism/govprotect/resilience/counterterr.html.
It is important to note that the Government, emergency services and others regularly train and practise their responses to all kinds of major incidents, including natural disasters and accidents, not just those caused by terrorist acts, in order to increase national resilience to a range of threats.