2. Work of the Committee
4. We published our report Defence and Security
in the UK in July 2002. The Government replied in October.[4]
In March 2003 we decided to return to the subject, in order to
examine what progress had been made since our report. We held
three evidence sessions. As with our previous inquiry, these sessions
covered a wide range of issues, many of them outside the scope
of the draft bill. The first was with Sir David Omand, the Government's
Security and Intelligence Co-ordinator, and Ms Susan Scholefield,
Head of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat. The second was held
in the headquarters of Portsmouth City Council and was from a
range of witnesses representing the emergency services and other
responding agencies in the Portsmouth area. The third session
focused on security in the London area. The witnesses were Rt
Hon Nick Raynsford MP, Minister for London, Assistant Commissioner
David Veness, Metropolitan Police, and Mr Zyg Kowalczyk, Director
of the London Resilience Team. We also wrote to those who had
contributed to our earlier inquiry inviting them to update their
original evidence. We have published as much of that evidence
as we are able to with this report. We commend it to the Joint
Committee.
5. We had intended to conclude our follow-up inquiry
with evidence from the Home Secretary. That has not yet proved
possible, but, in the light of the timetable which has been set
for the Joint Committee, we have decided to publish this report
before we have been able to hold that session. We have benefited
in the evidence sessions and with the preparation of this report
from the experience and expertise of our Specialist Advisers:
Dr James Broderick, Mr Peter Clarke, Dr Andrew Rathmell, Mr Paul
Read and Brigadier Austin Thorpe. We are grateful to them for
their assistance. We hope that the Joint Committee will find our
comments useful.
6. One of the issues we have tried to tease out throughout
our inquiries has been the importance of the legislative framework
to the total effort to secure the UK's resilience and preparedness.
On the one hand it seems self-evident that a system which relies
on the Civil Defence Act of 1948 and Emergency Powers Acts from
the 1920s must be in urgent need of overhaul, if it is to be able
to respond to the threats of the twenty-first century. The deficiencies
of the existing legislation have certainly been brought to our
attention on many occasions during our inquiries. Indeed the consultation
document, which accompanies the draft bill says, of the existing
emergency powers legislation, that "as currently constituted
the Act does not serve a useful function in the early twenty-first
century."[5]
7. On the other hand a succession of government witnesses
have assured us that they have been able to do all that they have
needed to within the existing legislative framework. Most recently,
Sir David Omand told us both that—
We have now an organisation that is fit for purpose:
we have the capacity in central government to respond swiftly
and effectively to a range of disruptive challenges.[6]
And later that—
Operationally it is not essential to have this consolidated
legislation.[7]
8. We consider the proposals in the draft bill in
more detail below. We recognise that much has been done in the
past few years and particularly since 11 September 2001 to improve
emergency planning and to strengthen coordination between the
key players. But these efforts have not been facilitated by the
legislative framework; in some respects they have been made more
difficult. There is for example no duty on local authorities to
plan for emergencies. There is no duty on local agencies, including
the emergency services to work together.[8]
So, although it is perhaps not surprising that government witnesses
have tried to be reassuring, we have not been persuaded by their
arguments.
4 HC (2001-02) 1230 Back
5
Consultation document, p27 Back
6
Q3 Back
7
Q75 Back
8
Except in the limited context of the Control of Major Accident
Hazard Regulations and the Radiation (Emergency Planning) (Public
Information) Regulations. Back
| 
