Hemel MP Mike Penning welcomes Buncefield recommendations

Mike Penning welcomes the Buncefield Investigation's recommendations for a Minister to be given overall charge of major incidents with funds available immediately.

Hemel Hempstead MP, Mike Penning welcomed today’s publication of the Buncefield Investigations’ recommendations on the emergency preparedness for, response to and recovery from incidents.

“I am very pleased that the Investigation’s findings support my calls for a Minister to be given overall charge of major incidents of this nature. I have been calling for this for the past 18 months.”

He added:

“I am also very encouraged by the recommendation that funds should be made available to the affected communities up front. The Minister responsible for a major incident should have a ring-fenced budget which is available immediately – it is unfair to expect the local authorities to bear this cost with no assurances that they will be reimbursed at a later date.

In the case of Buncefield, the emergency funds could then be clawed back from the oil companies – at no additional cost to the tax payer.”

The report also makes recommendations about better co-ordination and training – including for example the need for national-level arrangements to provide emergency response equipment such as high volume pumps, firefighting foam and special pollutions containment equipment.

Mike said:

“The emergency services did a tremendous job at Buncefield, but there is clearly a need for better national-level co-ordination and training. At Buncefield much of the emergency services response was down to the initiative and experience of the personnel on the ground. The Government should have better national procedures in place.

“The Government needs to act on these recommendations now and give us a strategy so that we can rebuild infrastructure and confidence and prevent this from ever happening again.”