Further memorandum submitted by the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office
EXERCISE BLUE MONDAY & CONTINGENCY PLANNING
It might interest the Committee to know that
the FCO held its first counter-terrorism tabletop exercise on
10 March in our Main Building. Post 9/11 and Bali, the FCO recognises
how important it is to test our contingency plans and response
to a serious incident overseas, which as lead Department the FCO
would be charged with co-ordinating. Highlighting to a senior
audience the Office's revised plans and procedures was the key
objective of the exercise.
"Blue Monday", as the exercise was
named, involved a group of over 80 FCO officials from many parts
of the Office working through a notional scenario involving two
major, simultaneous terrorists incidents against British interests
overseas (an explosion at a British Embassy in a remote African
country and a hostage-taking incident aboard a passenger cruise-liner
in a foreign port). It was not a live exercise where participants
simulate what would happen in real life. Rather, the tabletop
format allowed "players" in small syndicate groups to
discuss specific questions at each stage of the scenario, presenting
their conclusions to the wider group along the way. The day was
interspersed with short speaking slots from senior Metropolitan
Police Service, Special Forces and FCO colleagues. One of the
key issues that came up was the establishment of our new Rapid
Deployment Teams (RDTs) as part of our revised contingency plans
post-Bali. As a matter of interest, we responded to the Riyadh
compound bombings on 12 May by sending a RDT—the first such
time one has been deployed. The RDT dealt with 101 cases of actual
or reported British nationals and their dependents who might have
been affected by the attack.
So the exercise was well timed and achieved
the objective of highlighting the importance of speedy and effective
crisis management response. But it is not our intention to stop
there. We will be holding a large, "live" CT exercise
in Athens in December with the Greek authorities to test their
and our contingency plans for dealing with an incident during
the Olympics next year, the security of which we have been working
closely with the Greeks on. And, resources permitting, we intend
looking afresh at the contingency planning we do and intensifying
the number and scope of exercises, in London and across the network
of FCO Posts. The FCO Board expects to take a paper on all of
this in July. We will keep the FAC closely informed as decisions
are taken and work is progressed.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
June 2003
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