The Department of Energy would be the lead depart­ment for all civil nuclear emergencies in England and Wales and would be responsible for the nuclear emer­gency briefing room in London. The briefing room would not be an operations room but would be the focal point in Whitehall for the information and brief­ing of government ministers and departments on the emergency. The department would be responsible for the formal appointment of a government technical adviser if an emergency was considered to be serious or likely to be prolonged beyond 24 hours. The gov­ernment technical adviser would be one of the Deputy Chief Inspectors of Nuclear Installations. The GTA would go to the operational support centre as a govern­ment representative and would:

• Provide authoritative advice to the police, local authorities and the health authorities on any action necessary to protect the public.

• Provide an assessment of the cause of the accident to government departments.

• Act as chief government spokesman on all off-site operations authorities and other bodies before ad­vising people that they might return home after an evacuation.

The government technical adviser would not be re­sponsible for taking any executive action.

The department would provide a central press brief­ing centre at their offices in London where govern­ment statements on the emergency would be issued.

A representative of the department would attend the operational support centre as liaison officer.