Emergency phone network to keep vital services in contact

SCOTLAND is to have a new £2m phone system to help ministers, planners, and emergency workers communicate in the event of an emergency.

The new network will use "intelligent" computer systems to figure out how to get messages and data through even when phone lines are down and mobile phone masts out of action. The system will route calls and computer data via satellite connections where necessary.

The set-up will include links to Royal palaces in Scotland so that the Queen will be able to order emergency powers to be brought in if she is staying north of the Border.

But the system has been criticised by Labour sources south of the Border for failing to deal with Scotland's everyday justice needs. Ministers and senior officials have ordered the new Resilient Telecoms Network to be phased in over the next two years, and have asked companies to bid for the £2m contract to set up the system.

Planners believe the experience in the wake of the London bombings of 2005, where so many people used their mobile phones that emergency services struggled to get through, and communications bottlenecks in the wake of the Lockerbie disaster have shown the need for the new network.

In addition, mobile phone networks in Scotland have suffered because of storm damage in the past.

A year ago, Scotland suffered its first terrorist attack when a Jeep laden with gas canisters was driven into the front of Glasgow Airport in an attempt to trigger an explosion.

Under law, the Prime Minister and senior cabinet ministers require the assent of the monarch to enact emergency powers. But a Whitehall source questioned the need for the new system.

The source said: "So after Armageddon, when dinosaurs have reclaimed the Earth, Alex Salmond will be able to chat to the Queen on the fancy new phone? This will not put a single extra police officer on the streets of Scotland. It is an exercise in vanity."

But officials have defended the emergency phone scheme.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "We are absolutely committed to the fight against terrorism and, as last summer's attack at Glasgow Airport showed, Scotland is just as liable to be the target of terrorism as anywhere else in the UK. We are therefore replacing our existing system with a more resilient telecommunications structure and make no apologies for doing so."