MAYOR'S FLU PANDEMIC PLAN 7 MONTHS LATE

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 18th Oct 2005

London Assembly Liberal Democrats will later today (Tuesday) call for the Mayor to publish the long awaited Flu Pandemic Response Plan that he promised more than seven months ago, as research in the journal Nature revealed that bird flu has started to become resistant to the drug Ken Livingstone spent £1million stockpiling for key sector workers in the capital.

Ken Livingstone promised back in March 2005 that he was working on a "Pandemic Response Plan", which has so far not been published. The Liberal Democrats will call for a root and branch review of the type of drugs the Mayor has stockpiled and when he will publish the Flu Pandemic Response Plan.

The delay comes despite the fact that in March, Ken Livingstone said:-

"We are more at risk of dying from bird flu than we are from being blown up by any terrorist."

Liberal Democrat London Assembly Health spokesperson, Geoff Pope, said:-

"The worrying news that bird flu appears to be changing and coming closer to the capital should send out a warning to the Mayor that the long awaited contingency plans must be urgently published and put in place for the whole of the capital.

"In March the Mayor promised Londoners that he would be publishing a 'Pandemic Response Plan' for the capital, yet seven months later we are still waiting.

"If he believes that Londoners are more at risk from bird flu than from terrorism, then it is time the Mayor raised his game and developed a coherent and consistent strategy to tackle the possible pandemic that is threatening to become reality."

ENDS

Notes to editor

· Mayor's Questions Time will be held at City Hall on Tuesday 18th October from 10am.

· On the 16th March 2005, Ken Livingstone told the Liberal Democrats:-

"Work has now started in developing the GLA group Pandemic Response Plan and officers will ensure that it complements and supports the national contingency plan which was published on 1 March 2005."

http://mqt.london.gov.uk//public/question.do?id=10548

· On Wednesday 23rd February 2005, Ken Livingstone announced that he had purchased 100,000 courses of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu to give to, among others, Police officers, transport workers and firefighters in the capital.

http://mqt.london.gov.uk//public/question.do?id=10068

· On the 13th March 2005, Ken Livingstone told Breakfast with Frost that:

"We are more at risk of dying from bird flu than we are from being blown up by any terrorist."