To ask Her Majesty's Government how many counterterrorism exercises each department conducted (a) last year, and (b) in each other year for which figures are available. [HL1932]

The locus of UK counterterrorist exercising is the counterterrorism (CT) exercise programme administered by the Home Office which oversees the delivery of CT exercises. The programme is run in conjunction with the police and, depending on the nature of the exercise, involves the participation of other emergency services, government departments and agencies, the military, local authorities, health providers, scientists and technical specialists. The programme includes both live and tabletop exercises. Between 1 January 1997 and 31 December 2009, the programme delivered 31 national live counterterrorist exercises highlighted in the attached table.

In addition to those delivered by the national exercise programme, some departments individually conduct or participate in smaller-scale internal or bilateral exercises some of which are CT in nature. The information in relation to these is not held centrally.