Tessa Munt
Main Page: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)Department Debates - View all Tessa Munt's debates with the Cabinet Office
(3Â weeks, 2Â days ago)
Commons Chamber
The Minister for Intergovernmental Relations and European Relations (Mr Hamish Falconer)
We are engaged in discussions with the European Union on exactly the questions that the hon. Member refers to. We have made good progress in the first two years; I wish to go further, as I set out in my answer to the question before.
Tessa Munt (Wells and Mendip Hills) (LD)
Returning to the emergency alerts, what assessment has the Secretary of State made of issuing alerts on a regional or county basis for important but more local emergencies, such as bluetongue outbreaks in cattle and sheep in rural areas?
I hope that the hon. Member heard my earlier response about how seriously we take the issuing of the alert, and how we take considerable effort to look carefully at how it has worked and whether it can be improved in future. I say to her that every emergency alert is carefully co-ordinated with the responding public bodies and agencies, and each request is evaluated on a case-by-case basis to ensure that it is necessary for public safety.