Operation Sassoon - History

History

According to newspaper reports, the plans were drawn up upon the instructions of John Prescott MP, the Deputy Prime Minister, and senior officers at the Metropolitan Police. The draft plans were submitted to the London Resilience Forum, which at the time was chaired by Nick Raynsford MP with Ken Livingstone as his deputy.

A plan was developed by a multi agency team made up of local authority,transport and police representatives led by a senior MPS officer working closely with colleagues in the South East and East of England Regions. The first version of the framework document was published on December 31st 2003 and the current version was last revised in April 2005.

On October 25th 2004, Paul Goodman, Conservative MP for Wycombe, tabled a Parliamentary question in the House of Commons which was answered by Nick Raynsford MP, the then Minister of State for Local and Regional Government, on plans to use High Wycombe as a care shelter as part of Operation Sassoon. The answer given by the Minister is on record at Hansard.

Operation Sassoon has specific importance as the South East has the highest number of potential targets for disruptive action in England. These include:

• five major airports and the most congested airspace
• the largest number of nuclear establishments
• 11 maritime ports, four container ports and the most congested sea-lanes
• around 700 miles of coastline
• the most complex motorway and railway networks
• a significant number of large-scale social and sporting events and locations

The surrounding regions of South Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire would be involved in receiving evacuees.

The plan was replaced in 2009 by a less rigid set of arrangements to evacuate instead parts of London rather than the whole of London. OP Sassoon has therefore been consigned to history.