MPs: UK's Response To Hurricane Irma Ill-Prepared

Picture: Royal Air Force Puma landing on Oil Nut Island in response to Hurrican Irma.

Further cuts to the Royal Navy could affect the Government's ability to respond to future natural disasters, according to MPs.

The Commons Foreign Affairs Committee also said the Government should have been better prepared to help British overseas territories after storms wrought devastation across the Caribbean last year.

MPs said it was "regrettable" there was no international disaster relief strategy for the region when Hurricanes Irma and Maria struck last September.

The overseas territories of Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands were caught in the trail of devastation left by Irma while Maria hit the Commonwealth island of Dominica.

The Turks and Caicos Islands were hit by both hurricanes.

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Mounts Bay - which had been stationed in the region since July - arrived in Anguilla two days after the storm made landfall, bringing humanitarian supplies and disaster relief teams.

However, it was another two weeks before a joint military task force on the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean reached the region.

WATCH: On Board RFA Mounts Bay As Hurricane Maria Wreaks Havoc

The committee said the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) had acknowledged there were "lessons to be learned" from the Government's response and called for the development of an international disaster relief strategy for the region.

"While we welcome the FCO launching an exercise to identify regional and international assets that could be used in response to major natural disasters in future, it is regrettable that this had not been done previously as part of wider crisis planning, in addition to the welcome deployment of RFA Mounts Bay to the area in July," it said.

"Given the Caribbean's vulnerability to hurricanes, we would have expected the FCO already to have had a good understanding of the resources available and an agreed collaborative international strategy in place."

With HMS Ocean being withdrawn from service, the committee said the FCO should ensure the needs of the overseas territories were taken into account in any decisions regarding the future of the navy and that assets were dedicated to the disaster response role.

Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat said: "Ministers need to offer the UK's overseas territories a more structured response in any such future event.

"The overseas territories in the Caribbean were known to be vulnerable to the risk of hurricanes.

With six territories in relatively close proximity, the FCO should have an agreed, collaborative, international strategy ready to go."

An FCO spokeswoman said: "The destructive force of hurricanes Irma and Maria was unprecedented, resulting in one of the most complex crises the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has faced in modern times.

"We have looked back at our response and drawn on the lessons learned to bring in improvements to our approach to managing catastrophic events in UK Overseas Territories.

"An inter-ministerial group has been established to ensure sustained recovery and reconstruction response and we are working closely with territory governments to better prepare for the coming hurricane season.

"We will carefully consider the recommendations set out in the report and respond in due course."

Images courtesy of the Ministry of Defence.