• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 08 December 2004

Thinking about evacuation, I am sure you will agree it is important that the extent to which people are educated in advance of the crisis about what is expected of them will help in the management at the time. Looking at the Preparing for Emergencies booklet, which has been mentioned, that has three generic bullet points on this issue, and if you compare that with what is available to New Yorkers, in terms of a very detailed guide, with evacuation there absolutely, all sorts of things, down to what to do with your pets, which I am sure is a...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 08 December 2004

Just following up on the points about spontaneous evacuation, as opposed to the formal evacuation plans, and if the plans to guide and inform people and all the rest of it did not work, could people expect formal restrictions on their movement in the event of a severe incident?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 08 December 2004

Right, so that is about 10 years old.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 08 December 2004

Has, for example, something like a register of all the private coach operators in London been established? Has that all happened already?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 08 December 2004

How would that information be made available to Londoners ' with road, rail, Tube closures so that you avoid that kind of human panic? If transport is running at any point, how are they going to receive those'?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 08 December 2004

I did not know London's topography changed that often. You said it is quite likely in a catastrophic incident that the advice will be to stay indoors, basically, but how will you manage a spontaneous, fear-led mass exodus, when people panic? What have you got in place for that?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 08 December 2004

What age have they reached - not infancy?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 08 December 2004

On what you were saying about the generic framework for evacuation, Operation Sassoon, at that time, the progress report admitted that the plans were in place, but sort of in their infancy, and that detailed support plans for each agency involved, a communication strategy, and more detailed overall organisation needed to be worked on. Are you saying you have now worked on them, and they are completed, or will they be still in their infancy?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 08 December 2004

Excuse me, did you not recognise this 17 years ago during the King's Cross fire? Are you saying that we have not moved on from there, and is it not about time that something was resolved, and you could all speak together?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 08 December 2004

I just want to follow up the work about working together in this MAIAT. I am confident when you are all in a room, yes, you are all working together, but it has been reported to me that none of your communication systems actually connect with each other. Therefore, what happens at the operational level, if you are all running on different communications systems? Is that high up on the agenda? I am thinking about the command, really. I am not talking about people putting out fires. I am talking about the connection between the fire service, the police, the...