PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Emergency Preparedness - 24 April 2025 (Commons/Commons Chamber)

The Government are introducing a range of measures to strengthen our emergency preparedness. We hold regular cross-Government planning exercises for a range of scenarios. Later this year, we will undertake a pandemic response exercise, and we will also undertake a national test of our emergency alert system. Next week, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster will open the new UK Resilience Academy, which will train over 4,000 people a year.

I thank the Minister for her response, and I particularly welcome the proposed test of the emergency alert system. The demise of landlines and the switch off of the public switched telephone network means that residents—particularly those in areas that suffer prolonged power outages, such as parts of my Carlisle constituency—now rely on their mobile phones more than ever in emergency events. Does the Minister share my desire to see Ofcom expedite its work on the radio access network resilience project so that we can move towards a position where the networks put in place emergency generators to switch the masts back on in the event of a prolonged power outage?

This is an issue that I recognise, and I reassure my hon. Friend that my colleagues in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology are working very closely with telecoms companies and Ofcom to ensure that consumers are protected throughout the public switched telephone network migration. As she mentioned, that will include provisions to protect access to emergency services during power outages.

Local resilience forums such as Northumbria LRF and Durham and Darlington LRF, which cover my constituency, play a very important role in identifying potential risks and supporting our local communities. Can the Minister tell the House how the Government are working with these local forums, and how they will ensure that their insights feed into the Government’s planning and preparation for risks such as pandemics?

I thank my hon. Friend for her important question. The Government recognise the importance of local resilience forums and the role they play in boosting resilience in places and communities. I hope she feels reassured that I have met all local resilience forums across England to discuss their concerns, and I have also met businesses to talk about the importance of local resilience. We will continue to work closely with local resilience forums, including Northumbria LRF in her local area, to plan and prepare for a broad range of risks, including pandemics.

While I was a police and crime commissioner, I saw many of the things that have been referred to by hon. Members as critically important for emergency resilience planning across the public sector and working with the private sector. To ensure that that is all targeted in the right way, it is key to make sure that all the different agencies, public bodies and companies have a shared understanding of the risks that we face as a country, and receive the latest updates on those. Can the Minister tell the House when the Government will next update the national risk register, and explain what plans Ministers have for the frequency with which those updates will be published?

I thank the hon. Member for his work in this space, because I know he has done a lot of work on this issue. We are constantly looking at the risk register and updating it, and a lot of work has been done. Alongside that, we are carrying out a resilience review. As he rightly pointed out, we need to work across a wide range of sectors to make sure that wider society plays a greater role in this matter, and the work that I have been doing has involved meeting businesses, voluntary organisations and vulnerable groups to make sure that the issues are reflected. We will make sure that we share the lessons learned with the House in due course, and I have also engaged with parliamentarians on this issue.

In the last few weeks, Dorset has been ravaged by wildfires, especially Upton heath and Canford heath in my local area, where more than 130 acres are gone. I was blown away by the work of the fire crews from Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Will the Minister thank the fire services for their combined work, but also acknowledge that there needs to be a review of funding for emergency services to ensure that they are consistently able to protect us in the face of climate change? I ask her for that assurance.

I thank the hon. Member for raising such an important matter. I want to put on record my thanks to the emergency services, which have been doing a lot of work on the ground, particularly through local resilience forums and her work as a local MP. As part of the resilience review, we are looking at the issues she has raised. We are also working collaboratively across Departments to make sure that the climate change matters she has raised are looked at, because they should be looked at not only by the Cabinet Office alone, but across all Departments.

I call the shadow Minister.

I would like to turn to the sorry state of Labour-run Birmingham, where rats the size of dachshunds are terrifying local residents. Indeed, in The Daily Telegraph this morning, we read that

“Birmingham city council warns of a surge in rat-borne diseases…that the elderly, disabled people and babies are ‘particularly susceptible’ to”.

The Government have had emergency powers throughout this crisis, not least the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. Will the Minister set out for the House why they have declined to use them?

I thank the hon. Member for his question, and I am sure he would like to join me in praising the Deputy Prime Minister and her team for their hard work on this. A lot of the rubbish has been cleared, and I want to take this opportunity to thank all the staff in Birmingham and across Departments who have played a key role in responding quickly to and dealing tirelessly with this matter.

I am afraid I am not going to congratulate the Deputy Prime Minister, in much the same way that the people of Birmingham are not thanking her either. I very much hope that the Deputy Prime Minister will take the Prime Minister and maybe the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster to Birmingham to see that, in fact, much of the rubbish has not been cleared. I also hope that the Labour party will undertake not to take any donations from Unite the union while this crisis is ongoing.

The Government have commissioners in Birmingham at the moment, but we know from answers to parliamentary questions that the commissioners are not involved in the negotiations to end this ongoing problem with the local union. The Government have powers to do so. Why are they not using those powers, and when will they bring an end to these strikes and set the people of Birmingham free?

I thank the hon. Member for the question, but I am slightly disappointed by the approach he has taken. It is important that we work collaboratively together. As he rightly pointed out, Birmingham is the focus here, and let us move the politics out of it. It is important that the dispute is resolved as swiftly as possible, and that is what the Deputy Prime Minister and her team are doing at the moment.