A wholesale shake-up of the Cold War-era emergency planning system is being mapped out to help Britain cope with the new threats of global terrorism after September 11, it emerged today.
A Bill will be put before Parliament early in the New Year to create a system capable of dealing with catastrophic incidents on the scale of the suicide plane attacks on New York and Washington.
The Government has been consulting local authorities which have responsibility for emergency planning across the country, in recent months.
Its plans demonstrate quite starkly how sure the Government is that Britain is a potential target for supporters of Osama bin Laden and his Islamist al Qaida network.
Current plans for major emergencies are based on legislation dating back to 1948 and 1986, during the Cold War period, and are now considered to be outdated, in the light of changed threats.
Local government minister Nick Raynsford told the Sunday Times: "We want people to know we are ready for any eventuality without alarming the public."
Preparations for the new bill have been led by the Civil Contingencies Secretariat in the Cabinet Office, set up by Tony Blair shortly before September 11 to help deal with unexpected emergencies. It is expected to be introduced to Parliament within the first two or three months of 2003.
A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "The Government does take this very seriously and is looking for a structure for the 21st century. We are consulting with the local authorities who have to plan on the ground for major emergencies.
"It will be a fairly substantial piece of legislation, coming out next year and going through Parliament as soon as time permits.
"Events on September 11 and afterwards have shown the need to plan for these sorts of catastrophic incidents.".
The spokesman said it was too early to confirm speculation that every household in the country would be provided with a leaflet advising them how to survive biological, nuclear or chemical attacks.
Press reports suggested that Britons would be advised to "go in, stay in and tune in" to their radios in case of attack.
And new emergency powers will be enacted for the Government to create "community assistance zones" to help move people faster in the event of an emergency, it was reported.
Mr Raynsford was quoted as saying that UK Resilience, a body set up after September 11 to help draw up contingency plans for the country, was creating a network of "gatekeepers" - trusted members of the community who would be able to inform local people on the nature of an attack and help in any evacuation.
The Cabinet Office spokesman was also unable to confirm claims by the Independent on Sunday that officials within the Civil Contingencies Secretariat were pessimistic about Britain's capacity to cope with a major attack under present conditions.
The paper quoted an internal document as saying that, since the end of the Cold War, "civil defence effectively no longer exists in the UK as a stand-alone practical activity".
One document warns that while Britain can "respond effectively to smaller-scale emergencies", the capacity to deal with bigger ones is "urgently required", stated the paper.
And it said that officials had warned of "catastrophic incidents simultaneously occurring in diverse locations, arising from terrorist attack" which could "threaten the viability of the nation as a whole".
PA