23 May 2005
In January 2005 the Government announced that a Government Decontamination Service (GDS) would be created by the summer of 2005. The GDS will advise local authorities and organisations on cleaning up the environment after a Chemical, Biological, Radiological or Nuclear (CBRN) incident. An outline of the main functions of the GDS can be found on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) website.
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The Society responded to a public consultation on the role of the GDS. The response was based on the report Making the UK safer: detecting and decontaminating biological and chemical agents, which the Society published in April 2004.
The key points made in the response are: