§ The Secretary of State for Transport (Mr. Alistair Darling)I have today published the key lessons from the emergency exercise held at Bank Underground Station on 7 September 2003. The exercise confirmed that a great deal of work has been done to improve London's capability to respond to major emergencies but identified further areas for action.
The exercise was designed to enable London's frontline services, fire, police and ambulance, to practise their response to a chemical attack on the Tube.
This was an extremely valuable exercise, which allowed us to test the capability and constraints of our emergency services under difficult circumstances. Exercises such as this are also an opportunity to learn and we have identified areas that need further development.
While some of the conclusions need to remain confidential for reasons of security we are today fulfilling our commitment to make public the key findings that the emergency services and others have identified.
The exercise found that:
a great deal of work has already been done by Government, Emergency Services and the Mayor of London to improve London's capability to respond to emergencies through improved equipment and planning;there needs to be contingency planning, preparation and funding for responding to large scale emergencies and that this work continues to be given high priority;work needs to continue to look at and prepare for alternative rescue plans for difficult environments like the London Underground;work needs to continue to improve the ability of those wearing protective suits to be able to communicate under difficult conditions;ambulance crews need to be able to provide earlier assessment, care and delivery of specific antidotes to contaminated casualties; and,we must not underestimate the number of people and specialist equipment required to respond to such emergencies.The Government, the Mayor of London and London's emergency services will continue to work together, through the London Resilience Forum, to ensure these lessons are learnt to improve the capital's preparedness, now and for years to come.
The exercise held at Bank Underground station on 7 September was designed to test specific elements of the emergency services' response to a chemical attack on the Tube.
The exercise was organised by the London Resilience Forum, the pan-London emergency planning body chaired by London Resilience Minister, Nick Raynsford, with Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, as deputy chair.
It was one of an extensive programme of exercises that continues to be held to test and help improve our resilience to a major terrorist attack. Further exercises are planned over the next two years, including a joint UK-US exercise planned for 2005.