Heathrow Airport Closure: Resilience and Security

Earl Russell Excerpts

Wednesday 26th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, that is a bit of a stretch from the Question, but I congratulate the noble Lord on his method. We of course look at the issue of Chinese ownership and involvement in the energy sector. We take security risks very seriously. Equally, we take a consistent and long-term strategic approach to managing the UK’s relations with China. On the development of a UK supply chain, I agree with him. It is worth making the point that, even with solar, much of the value of work in installing it is held in the UK, and other parts of the energy sector are too. We are very keen to see the growth of a UK supply chain generally.

[Earl Russell (LD)]

My Lords, when the substation caught fire, the Heathrow authorities decided that they needed to reconfigure all their internal electricity network, thereby turning off and back on again all the critical safety and computer systems, despite the fact that two other substations remained available to Heathrow. Does the Minister agree that it is important that both the inquiries that have been announced seek to understand why the Heathrow authorities felt that they were unable to transfer from one substation to another without restarting their computer systems?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, my understanding is that, in Heathrow’s view, the supply was insufficient to ensure safe and secure operation. Therefore, it proceeded to reconfigure its internal electricity network to enable the resumption of full operations, utilising the other two external supply points. This required hundreds of systems to be safely powered down and then safely powered up, with extensive testing. The Kelly review will analyse all the relevant material concerning the robustness and execution of Heathrow’s crisis management plans and the airport’s response. The review that my right honourable friend the Secretary of State has commissioned from Ofgem will be looking at the issues of energy, the power outage and what lessons we have learned. We will have discussions with Heathrow to make sure that the terms of reference give us a comprehensive picture.