To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many project risks are listed for the (a) FireLink and (b) FireControl project; how many of these risks are rated as high or above; and what the risks rated as high or above are. (175564)

[holding answer 7 January 2008]: There are 76 project risks on the Firelink Risk Register, of which some 20 per cent. are rated high or above. These risks are actively managed and mitigated in order to reduce their impact ratings. They fall into the following broad areas:

Contractor performance;

User acceptance;

Technical integration with other projects;

The ability of emergency services to develop joint procedures to maximise the potential of the network;

Sufficiency of network capacity;

Operational continuity of legacy systems until rollout of the whole programme is complete, and

continuity in consultancy support and capabilities.

There are 130 project risks on the FiReControl Risk Register, of which some 6 per cent. are rated high or above. These risks are actively managed and mitigated in order to reduce their impact ratings. They fall into the following broad areas:

Local/regional resource capacity/capability

Strategic change/impacts

Technical integration with other projects

Contractor performance

User acceptance.