Conditions for making emergency regulations
Civil Contingencies Bill
4:45 pm
Mr Patrick Mercer (Newark, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 85, in
clause 20, page 13, line 34, at end add—
'(7) The fourth condition is that subject to the conditions appertaining at that time the public be informed at the earliest possible opportunity of the type of emergency, the steps taken to mitigate its effect and its likely duration and the area affected by the emergency.'.
The amendment seeks to include a practical element alongside the other conditions for making an emergency regulation that are specified in clause 20. It makes it clear that we are looking for a fourth condition. It is intended purely and simply to probe the Government about how far they intend to take clause 20, with a view to making their actions not secretive but completely open and to align them with making information public before, during and after an incident.
Let me give an illustration. The powers in the Bill are predicated on the worst possible event, which, as we have already heard, could be some form of traumatic assault, be it by disease, weapon or natural disaster. Clearly, all of those would cause conditions such as have probably never been experienced in this country.
The amendment seeks to ensure that people understand precisely what has happened. What would be the benefits of that? If, for instance, there were a dirty bomb in Cornwall, which is a reasonably discrete part of the British isles, how much sense would there be in broadcasting the fact that that attack had occurred?