Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Naseby (Conservative). It was answered on Tuesday, 12 December 2006.

London: Emergency Services

Question: My Lords, on the surface that Answer might seem reassuring, but is it not true that Airwave is incompatible with the London Underground system and that the new system, Project Connect, will not roll out until, at the earliest, 2007? Are there not also technical problems with the train computers on the Central, Jubilee and Northern lines and does not the back-up system have a life span of only five hours, just when a crisis would reach its peak? All in all, it is going to take at least two and a half years to have a system up and working. Do not the citizens of London and our guests from overseas deserve something better than having once again to put up with the debris of Home Office incompetence?

Answer: My Lords, let me deal with those questions in turn. At the moment, Airwave is incompatible with Project Connect. As I have said, when Project Connect is completed at the end of 2007, Airwave will be extended and it will be fully compatible. If the noble Lord were to read the evidence put forward in response to the Barnes committee last week, he would find that London Underground made some strong statements about the dramatic progress that it has made in rolling out Project Connect, line by line, which is to its great credit. In addition, we will have a system in the interim whereby mobile phones have been offered to and are being used by critical command personnel in all the key emergency services. The evidence given to the committee shows how much progress has been made by the emergency services and how much more robust is the resilience of communications than on 7/7.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 687 c1446
Session: 2006-07
Oral question type: 1st Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Lords chamber
Related items: Deposited Paper HDEP 2006/822
Wednesday, 20 December 2006
Deposited papers
House of Lords
Subjects: Greater London Emergency services London Underground Radio Underground railways Airwave service
Link: View this Oral question on www.publications.parliament.uk