El Niño: Impact

Baroness Coussins Excerpts

Tuesday 19th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

The noble Earl is absolutely right: I will have to write him with the detail of the number of planes available for use at that point, because, at a time of national crisis, we obviously also divert resources from other parts of the country if required. On learning steps, I think we absolutely have learned. We have to learn from each new event, because there are unique parts that come through. There is now a national resilience wildfire adviser in post to make sure that we are doing co-ordinated work. I had a very reassuring conversation with my noble friend Lord Roe yesterday about the lessons that have been learned from the fire service and how we operate in the round in this space.

[Baroness Coussins (CB)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that the emergency alerts that one can sign up for via the Prepare website are available in English and Welsh only? If there is going to be an El Niño event later this year, will she commit to taking urgent action to make sure that emergency alerts are available in other languages, apart from English and Welsh, so that everybody can have the information and protection that they need?