The Prime Minister announces new emergency preparedness measures

Today both Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Minister of Justice and Public Security Grete Faremo gave an address in the Storting on the steps the Government plans to take in response to the 22 July Commission report.

In his address, Mr Stoltenberg indicated that he had not been prepared for the extent of the criticism in the Commission’s report. He acknowledged that it was hard to face up to such fundamental shortcomings given the magnitude of the tragedy, but emphasised that the Government will do its utmost to correct the shortcomings.

Mr Stoltenberg announced that more and better emergency response exercises would be held at all levels of the public administration, that a new emergency response centre would be established for the police in Oslo, and that as of January next year, military helicopters based at Rygge would be able to provide assistance to the police as necessary.

Mr Stoltenberg said that more initiatives, measures and changes would be put forward in due course. All the Commission’s 31 recommendations will be thoroughly considered and the conclusions presented to the Storting.

• Link to the Prime Minister’s address to the Storting (English version)
• Link to the Minister of Justice and Public Security’s address to the Storting (Norwegian only)