The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) stepped up its political activity and engagement last month by organising fringe events at all three main political party conferences. The events, which were held jointly with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), focussed on infrastructure security and resilience and provided a platform for engineers and architects to engage closely with key political figures on issues such as terrorism and flooding.

All three events were extremely well-attended and featured a number of high-profile speakers – including Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP (Lab), Chris Huhne MP (Lib Dem), and Baroness Neville-Jones (Con). Other panellists included engineers and architects, emergency planning professionals, representatives of the Association of British Insurers, and London Assembly Members

ICE Vice President Richard Coackley, who chaired the event at the Labour Party conference, said: “It is vital that we in the engineering community engage with government to ensure the UK is prepared for potentially disastrous events such as terrorism or flooding.

“It is encouraging to hear MPs such as Keith Vaz urging engineers to take the arguments to government and assuring us that our voices will be heard. Professional engineers stand ready to work with government at all levels in order to ensure that critical infrastructure – and the population of the UK – receive the best possible protection against extreme events.”

The guest speakers and Q&A sessions at all three events explored how the UK can best defend its critical infrastructure from a variety of threats – including terrorist attacks, major transport accidents, extreme weather events, and pandemic influenza – and reduce the reliance on centralised services. These are issues which ICE has made strong calls for in recent reports..

Keith Vaz announced that he will be calling for an enquiry into the resilience of critical infrastructure, while Baroness Neville-Jones said that the Conservatives would be committed to a coordinated approach to critical infrastructure under a single Government body, with a minister to be present at any discussions affecting the UK’s infrastructure portfolio.

Anna Scott-Marshall, head of public affairs at the RIBA said:
“We were very encouraged by what we heard in the debates at each party conference. It is clear that the Government needs to give architects, engineers and other built environment professionals guidance to then go and build in creative solutions to adapt to flooding and terrorist attacks.”

ICE’s briefing sheet on security and resilience can be downloaded here: http://www.ice.org.uk/knowledge/Policy_statements.asp

•Date: 10th October 2008• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: Terrorism
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