Storm Bert: National Preparedness Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Lord Stirrup
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Storm Bert: National Preparedness
Lord Stirrup Excerpts(3 weeks, 4 days ago)
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Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
The Government are confident that they are working extremely hard to learn from previous events to improve responses as they go forward. That is why we have set up the Floods Resilience Taskforce; we want to ensure that we do the best job we can.
Lord Stirrup (CB)
My Lords, on that point, flooding is just one aspect of the wider issue of national resilience. What action are the Government taking to ensure that we have proper command and control mechanisms that can identify need at times of national stress, can identify the resources that are required to meet those needs and can co-ordinate the activity of various services, including the emergency services and the military, in the most efficient manner in a time of considerable crisis?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
That is a very important point. I give credit to the different organisations in Cumbria, where we do national resilience extremely well. In Penrith, people come together because we have had a number of similar events, not just flooding, and we have learned from them. Good work is taking place at the moment, and it is very effective.