Government Emergency Planning Arrangements

The recent terrorist attacks in Spain brought home to us all the harsh reality that terrorism could strike anywhere and at any time.

The UK Government is actively working towards strengthening its capability to plan, prepare for, deal with and recover from terrorist attacks at national, regional and local levels.  The Welsh Assembly Government has, for some time, played an active role in this process and works closely with the UK Government in developing national resilience.  The emergency services and other agencies in Wales are working in partnership to further develop their ability and capacity to deal with terrorist incidents.  Last week, I attended an anti-terrorism exercise in Swansea where I witnessed at first hand how all the many responder agencies are working together to mitigate the effects of a terrorist incident, if it were ever to occur in Wales.

The creation of the Cabinet Office Civil Contingencies Secretariat, the introduction of the Civil Contingencies Bill and the establishment of the Capabilities Programme all demonstrate the emphasis placed on resilience and protecting the national infrastructure.  In particular, the Bill provides the necessary legislative powers to allow the Assembly Government, emergency services and other partners to form an effective partnership to respond to any major incidents, both natural disasters and acts of terrorism.

In the event of an emergency in Wales the UK Government has agreed that a Welsh Emergency Co-ordinator will take the lead in co-ordinating the response.  This role is anticipated to fall primarily to myself as First Minister. The principal purpose of this role is to facilitate co-ordination of activities under emergency regulations.

The Welsh Assembly Government has strengthened its relationship with its partners in Wales whereby I chair the Wales Resilience Forum with Chief Officers discussing strategic issues of emergency preparedness in Wales.  It is a mark of the level of co-operation now evidenced on an all-Wales basis in confronting the new challenges.  The Forum meets regularly with the last meeting on 14th January 2004.  At official level, we have a Wales Emergencies Working Group to support the forum and to ensure that all organisations comprising the emergency planning community in Wales have an opportunity to contribute ideas and suggestions to improving emergency planning arrangements in Wales.  We also work closely with the four multi-agency groups based on the four Police force areas.  These groups are at the foundation of any operational response to emergencies in Wales.  We are also engaged in developing health preparedness and provide support to the NHS to help ensure their arrangements are as robust as possible, faced with a CBRN-based terrorist threat.

We will continue to work closely with the UK Government and the joint-agency groups in Wales to further develop our emergency planning arrangements. We are already involved in the programme of work being undertaken by the UK Government to enhance key generic capabilities that will allow us to respond to the most demanding emergencies.  We will continue to be involved in that programme and tailor the outputs into practical, tangible work on the ground here in Wales.