Winter Weather

Jacob Rees-Mogg Excerpts
Thursday 2nd December 2010

(13 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Jacob Rees-Mogg Portrait Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset) (Con)
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Does the Secretary of State agree that in a country with a generally temperate climate, such things will happen from time to time, that it would be disproportionate to spend too much money preventing them, and that even this Government cannot control the weather?

Lord Hammond of Runnymede Portrait Mr Hammond
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My hon. Friend is of course right. The Highways Agency has invested more than £100 million in new equipment for dealing with snow on the strategic highway network, as well as building a large strategic reserve of salt and grit. As I said earlier, clearly the question is not whether we can eliminate disruption when we get such snowfall in the UK. There will always be disruption. The question is whether there are sensible and proportionate measures that we could and should take which will minimise that disruption.