Oral Answers to Questions

Iain McKenzie Excerpts

Thursday 16th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Gregory Barker]

I commend my hon. Friend for his excellent work on an issue that is so important to his constituents. I should love to see a copy of that leaflet. We are keen to find out more about the ideas that my hon. Friend is pioneering with his community, and to learn from good practice and spread it throughout the country. Perhaps we shall have an opportunity to do that when we launch our community energy strategy.

[Mr Iain McKenzie (Inverclyde) (Lab)]

3. What recent discussions he has had with power companies on their preparedness to deal with bad weather events.

[The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Mr Edward Davey)]

Let me begin by saying that our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Paul Goggins as we all celebrate his life and superb contribution on his funeral day.

I met the distribution network operators and key industry players on 8 January to discuss the power cuts over the Christmas period. I have organised a review of what worked and what did not, and I am due to receive a report before the end of March.

While there are clearly lessons to be learned, especially in regard to communications with customers, I want to record again my thanks to the thousands of people who worked so hard over their Christmases, mostly in difficult circumstances, to look after and reconnect those who were affected by severe storms and flooding.

[Mr McKenzie]

Who is responsible for ensuring that power companies are sufficiently prepared for bad weather, and have enough staff to be able to deal with both the weather and any power cuts that may result from it? Is that his Department‘s job, or is it Ofgem’s?

[Mr Davey]

As the hon. Gentleman will know, Ofgem regulates the distribution network operators to ensure that they perform adequately, but the whole industry does a huge amount of work—along with Ofgem and my Department—to ensure that proper preparations are made. Between 24 and 28 December, unprecedented severe weather affected all parts of the country, and it was not possible to make preparations that rely on mutual aid because all the distribution network operators needed their staff. We certainly have lessons to learn from that unprecedented set of events.