Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of telecommunications systems resilience during power cuts.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Government recognises the importance of the issue of power resilience for the sector. Whilst most power cuts are brief, we recognise the impact that they can have on the telephone network. We are working closely with the regulator, communications providers and the power sector to improve resilience and minimise disruption to the public and businesses as much as possible.
Communications providers have statutory responsibilities to take all appropriate and proportionate steps to minimise disruption to services and must ensure at least one form of communication is available for contacting emergency services for a minimum of one hour during a power outage. On 6 September 2024, Ofcom published detailed resilience guidelines specifying the measures that providers are expected to meet throughout their networks, including resilience to power cuts, and set out the analysis they are completing to consider whether additional resilience is required for mobile services.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department plans to improve the resilience of local telecommunications networks through power outages.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Government recognises the importance of the issue of power resilience for the sector. Whilst most power cuts are brief, we recognise the impact that they can have on the telephone network. We are working closely with the regulator, communications providers and the power sector to improve resilience and minimise disruption to the public and businesses as much as possible.
Communications providers have statutory responsibilities to take all appropriate and proportionate steps to minimise disruption to services and must ensure at least one form of communication is available for contacting emergency services for a minimum of one hour during a power outage. On 6 September 2024, Ofcom published detailed resilience guidelines specifying the measures that providers are expected to meet throughout their networks, including resilience to power cuts, and set out the analysis they are completing to consider whether additional resilience is required for mobile services.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the Communications Ombudsman's powers to increase the accountability of telecommunications providers.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Communications Ombudsman is one of two Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) schemes accredited by Ofcom, the independent regulator of services, in the telecoms sector.
Ofcom launched a review of ADR in November 2023 which examines the extent to which schemes are working effectively, whether customers are receiving an accessible and fair service; and the potential need for changes to the monitoring of performance. Ofcom expect to provide an update on their review by the end of the year.
The government will consider any potential next steps once Ofcom’s review has concluded.