How will the Coroner’s recommendations ^[1] from the inquests into the 7 July 2005 terrorist attacks be implemented? How robust are new arrangements for emergency planning and resilience in London now that responsibility has been transferred to the Greater London Authority (GLA) ^[2]?

The Assembly’s Business Management and Administration Committee will tomorrow question Deputy Mayor and Chair of the London Resilience Forum Richard Barnes AM about the priorities, resources and work programmes of the London Resilience Forum.

In particular the Committee will ask how the London Resilience Forum is responding to and acting upon the recommendations made by the Coroner at the conclusion of the inquests into the deaths caused by the terrorist attacks of 7 July 2005 and progress on implementing the recommendations of the Assembly’s 2006 report into the emergency response to the bombings ^[3].

The Committee will also question Mr Barnes, who also has responsibility for communities, social cohesion and equalities issues, about the Mayor’s work in respect of asylum seekers.

The Business Management and Administration Committee (BMAC) meeting will take place on Wednesday, 22 June from 2pm in the Committee Room 5 at City Hall (The Queen’s Walk, London SE1). Media and members of the public are invited to attend.  The meeting can also be viewed via webcast.

Notes for Editors:

1. The Coroner’s report made nine recommendations, including five addressed specifically to the London Resilience Team.

• Recommendation 3. I recommend that the London Resilience Team reviews the provision of inter-agency major incident training for frontline staff, particularly with reference to the London Underground system.
• Recommendation 4. I recommend that Transport for London (TfL) and the London Resilience Team review the protocols by which TfL (i) is alerted to major incidents declared by the emergency services that affect the underground network, and (ii) informs the emergency services of an emergency on its own network (including the issuing of a ‘Code Amber’ or a ‘Code Red’, or the ordering of an evacuation.
• Recommendation 5. I recommend that TfL and the London Resilience Team review the procedures by which (i) a common initial rendezvous point is established, and its location communicated to all the arriving emergency services (ii) the initial rendezvous point is permanently manned by an appropriate member of London Underground.
• Recommendation 6. I recommend that TfL and the London Resilience Team review the procedures by which confirmation is sought on behalf of any or all of the emergency services that the traction current is off, and by which that confirmation is disseminated.
• Recommendation 9. I recommend that the Department of Health, the Mayor of London, the London Resilience Team and any other relevant bodies review the emergency medical care of the type provided by London Air Ambulance and Medical Emergency response Incident Team (LAA and MERIT) and, in particular (i) its capability and (ii) its funding.

2. On 1 December 2010 formal responsibility for the London resilience Forum and the London Resilience Team transferred from the Government Office for London to the GLA.

3. In June 2006 the Assembly’s 7 July Review Committee published its report into the lessons to be learned from the response to the bombings. The report made 54 recommendations designed to improve the way such major incidents, and the people caught up in them, are managed.

4. More information and full agenda papers.

5. As well as investigating issues that matter to Londoners, the London Assembly acts as a check and a balance on the Mayor.