May I introduce myself to list members. I am Prof. David Cope, director of
the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), at the Houses of
Parliament in London. POST is the newest institution of the Houses of
Parliament, set up 11 years ago. You can find further details about us and
our work at http://www.parliament.uk/post/home.htm.
A major part of our work involves producing briefing notes for members of
both Houses of Parliament. Some time in the next six months we intend to
produce such a note on the UK's scientific capabilities to predict and/or
mitigate natural disasters (and possibly some human-originating ones, such
as oil spills) in the UK's 'Overseas Territories' - a disparate collection
of places (mainly islands) scattered across the globe, from the Caribbean to
the Pacific, taking in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
A 'driving force' for this is the experience of Montserrat - and the recent
'inquest' report produced by the Overseas Development Institute, but we will
be taking a wider view, certainly covering other than volcanic incidents
alone.
While we will primarily be interested in communicating with other UK members
of this list, one question that we will certainly be asking is whether other
countries, with similar territorial responsibilities, 'do it better', so we
would welcome any perspectives from list members in countries such as France
and the USA.
As you may imagine, another driver is the concern about contingent
liabilities that might accrue to the UK Treasury in the aftemath of any
incident. This has been touched on by an earlier inquiry by the House of
Commons Public Accounts Committee (though it was primarily concerned with
liabilities arising from any financial scandals in the territories).
We have not yet determined the boundaries and contents of our briefing -
when we do so, I will post our proposals here and would welcome comment.
Meanwhile, if anyone wishes to contact us with suggestions of any form, we
would welcome them, as we are not experts in this area at all.
7 Millbank
Westminster, SW1P 3JA, England
tel: +44 (020) 7219 2848
fax: +44 (020) 7219 2849
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