Clause 18 - Meaning of ''emergency''
Civil Contingencies Bill
2:30 pm
Ms Fiona Mactaggart (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Race Equality, Community Policy and Civil Renewal), Home Office; Slough, Labour)
It might reassure the Committee if I review the structure of the clause. For an event or situation to qualify as an emergency, it must threaten serious damage to human welfare and to the environment and the security of the United Kingdom, as listed in subsection (1). Subsection (2) gives comprehensive exemplars of things that are required in order for the damage to be considered serious. It is therefore not sufficient for something to fall within paragraphs (a) to (h) or within any subsections in other clauses: that something is pre-eminently required to qualify as causing serious damage to human welfare, to the environment or to the security of the United Kingdom. Bearing that point in mind might mitigate some of the concerns that hon. Members have expressed. Some of the examples that they have described would not qualify as an emergency because serious damage would not have occurred.