Heathrow Substation Outage: NESO Review

Chi Onwurah Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Sir Roger Gale)]

I call the Chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee.

[Dame Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West) (Lab)]

Speaking as a chartered electrical engineer and as the Chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, I am absolutely amazed that such an important and large part of our critical national infrastructure in the National Grid was not properly maintained for seven years and that Heathrow—the busiest airport in the world—had a single point of failure. The Minister has outlined some of the processes and procedures that will follow, but will he say how he intends to improve the standards of engineering maintenance culture and excellence in our critical national infrastructure, which have clearly been allowed to fall significantly under successive Conservative Governments?

[Michael Shanks]

First, it is important to say that Heathrow had multiple routes into its electricity network—three in fact—which is unique. This report and the processes identified in the Kelly review will give Heathrow Airport Ltd pause for thought on what it needs to do on how its network is configured and how it can adapt in such situations. Of course, this is an incredibly rare circumstance, but the whole point of resilience planning is to plan for eventualities that we think are extremely unlikely to happen but that would have a significant impact if they did. Heathrow closing is clearly one such circumstance.

Secondly, my hon. Friend is right to highlight standards and systems. I want to be careful not to prejudge the review that Ofgem has announced, because there is something to be said about standards changing over time. Maintenance backlogs obviously then have to be met, and if the issue is that maintenance that should have been carried out has not been, that is clearly an issue we will take forward. But if it is just that pieces of infrastructure were subject to standards that have changed over time, we have a wider question of how we can adapt some of that infrastructure for future standards. We will look at all those points. I repeat to the House that our electricity system is incredibly robust in its resilience. We need to do everything possible to make it even more robust, so that such instances do not have quite so significant an impact as this one did.

Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage

Chi Onwurah Excerpts

Monday 7th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Ed Miliband]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his question. I talked to the UK chair of ExxonMobil last week about this issue, and I believe that the Minister of State, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon West (Sarah Jones), is going to meet him later this week. For the benefit of the House, this was not in either track 1 or track 2—it was part of the Solent cluster—but we want all the projects to go ahead and the Solent cluster has real potential and is an important part of this. The UK chair told me that this temporary pause was certainly nothing to do with the actions of this Government, but, frankly, was to do with the time it had taken the previous Government to get going on this. I undertake to the right hon. Gentleman that we will continue our dialogue with the company about these issues, including on the more technical issues that he is talking about.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West) (Lab)]

This announcement is fantastic news for the north-east and for the country. It will place us at the forefront of a critical and growing sector, it will help to re-industrialise regions that have been de-industrialised by successive Conservative Governments and it will deliver thousands of well-paid jobs—jobs that people can raise a family on. For the benefit of those with genuine concerns about the feasibility of this technology—as opposed to those playing party politics with innovation or those ideologically opposed to industry—will my right hon. Friend say a little more about the world-leading research and innovation that will carry on alongside this deployment, and particularly about the carbon storage research facility and the work that it will do?

[Ed Miliband]

My hon. Friend speaks with great knowledge of this subject. She is unusual in this House, in that she is an engineer by background and actually knows about these issues. She is absolutely right about this. Our world-leading scientists and engineers are a crucial part of our playing a world-leading role in this technology. I also say to those who are worried about the risk of this technology that the much, much greater risk is in not acting. The risk before us is the climate crisis that grows every day, and it is the right thing to do to get CCS moving.

Oral Answers to Questions

Chi Onwurah Excerpts

Tuesday 18th April 2023 Commons Chamber

[Amanda Solloway]

All the councils that are able to participate in the scheme have received the money from the Government, with 99% of local authorities onboarded so far. Ninety five per cent. of councils are processing claims, with the majority of applications having been accepted and paid. However, we are working to understand the specific problem in Eastleigh, and I will update my hon. Friend as soon as I can.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

T5. The experience of my constituents who are on prepayment meters is atrocious, and today’s announcement from Ofcom will do absolutely nothing to protect vulnerable groups such as those with Alzheimer’s, the under-fives and those who are over 75 but under 85. Will the Secretary of State answer the question he did not answer earlier, and say why he is not protecting the vulnerable from prepayment meters and the lack of energy support?

[Grant Shapps]

Just to correct the record, Ofgem is in charge. The measures it put out today, with industry agreement, will help to protect people. When a person’s payments are in deficit, they have to find a way out. The hon. Lady appears to favour a system in which, rather than installing a prepayment meter, people are immediately taken to court, which I do not think is a good solution. We will carry on working with Ofgem to make sure we put the best solutions in place.