wonder who supplied the 80 units mentioned
March 21, 2003
Emergency services still wait for terror defences
By Anthony Browne, Richard Ford and Valerie Elliot
BRITAIN remains poorly prepared for terrorist attacks despite frantic activity across government and commerce since the September 11 attacks in America.
The Government admitted yesterday that firefighters have still not received all the protective suits and decontamination equipment needed to deal with a chemical or biological attack and that some protection suits issued to medical workers were leaking, making them unsafe to use.
Fire chiefs gave warning that they would not be able to deal with two simultaneous attacks or a very large attack and that lives could be lost as a result.
Emergency planners said that the Government had ignored the need for a special national warning system, and the public would just have to rely on the BBC to find out what was happening.
The holes in Britain’s civil emergency plans emerged despite David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, saying yesterday that “every conceivable precautionary measure” was being taken.
The Government has spent £56 million on 4,000 suits to protect firefighters against biological, chemical, radiological and nuclear contamination, as well as 80 vehicles carrying 190 mass decontamination units that can each process 200 people an hour. The units are, in effect, large tents with showers and “derobing” and “rerobing” areas.
The fire services started to receive the decontamination equipment only last month, and it will not be fully in place until July. Sir David Omand, the Government’s security and intelligence co-ordinator, told the Commons Defence Select Committee: “In terms of the implications of not having this equipment in service, it is very serious. We do have to ensure that the fire service is trained on new equipment, which is about to arrive.”
Sir David agreed that there was still “an enormous amount of work to do” although he said: “The arrangements that we have are adequate, we believe, to cover the circumstances.”
Three months after the September 11 attacks, the fire services requested £250 million to buy search-and-rescue equipment, but the funding still awaits approval. Fire services have limited equipment, suitable only for small domestic incidents.
The Government has spent £5 million on 7,250 protective suits and 363 mobile decontamination units for ambulance services in England, with ambulance services in Scotland and Wales getting 2,000 suits and 31 pieces of mobile equipment. Large accident and emergency departments have been given decontamination units that they can fit on to their entrances.
Most of the suits and decontamination units are in place, but John Hutton, the Health Minister, admitted that the suits were leaky. Some health authorities have told staff to repair them with masking tape. Mr Hutton said that that was unacceptable but reissuing of the suits would take several months.
The Department of Health is vaccinating 350 frontline hospital staff against smallpox. It has spent £20 million on stockpiles of vaccines for the public, but will not reveal the number of doses available “for security reasons”. The Government has bought antibiotics to treat anthrax, but again will not say how much.
The Home Office has set up a chemical and biological warfare police training centre, and there are now more than 80 dedicated police units equipped to deal with such an attack. Hospitals, police forces and fire services have been undertaking emergency simulation exercises. The National Blood Service has planned emergency donor sessions to boost supplies after any attack.
Utility companies have also been carrying out emergency exercises to guarantee supplies. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has drawn up plans for food rationing if the national food supply is disrupted, although John Longworth, chairman of the food liaison group, said: “The UK food industry has one of the most effective supply chains in the world. We have robust and comprehensive contingency plans.”
The National Steering Committee on Warning and Informing the Public recommended last year that a system should be set up, ideally with computers that could send messages to every telephone line and mobile phone in a particular area or across the country. Nothing was done.
The siren warning system from the Second World War no longer works, and the only way that the Government can contact the public now is by means of television and radio channels.
The Government set up a website this week suggesting that people ought to stock a few bottles of water and some tins of food. In Australia the Government spent £5.7 million on providing leaflets for every household in the country. |
