Heathrow Airport Closure: Resilience and Security

Lord Harris of Haringey Excerpts

Wednesday 26th March 2025 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Harris of Haringey]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the implications of the closure of Heathrow airport following an electricity substation fire for the resilience of the electricity grid and the security of such substations.

[Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)]

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper. In doing so, I refer to my interest in the register as chair of the National Preparedness Commission.

[The Minister of State, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath) (Lab)]

My Lords, I extend my sympathies to all those affected by what happened at Heathrow. I also wish to praise the efforts of all the people who worked so hard to get Heathrow up and running again. The Government work continuously with industry, regulators and other stakeholders to improve and maintain the resilience and security of energy infrastructure and to minimise the risk of unplanned outages. Alongside Ofgem, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State commissioned the National Energy System Operator to carry out a review to investigate the power disruption to Heathrow. Once we have all the information, we will be best placed to understand any wider lessons to be learned on energy resilience and security for critical national infrastructure.

[Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for that reply, and I share his comments about the work put in to restore supplies. Some 30 years ago, the IRA had a credible and viable plan to bomb a whole series of substations around London to deprive London of electric power. It was thwarted only through the efforts of MI5 and the Metropolitan Police. Although it now appears that the fire was nothing to do with malicious action, it has demonstrated how significant substations are. What steps are being taken to ensure that substations around the country are properly secure against malicious actors?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for his work, particularly the work of the National Preparedness Commission. The matter he raises is very important. The Government take the protection of energy infrastructure seriously. We continually work with industry and the regulators to ensure that proportionate security measures are in place at key sites. In relation to what happened, the cause of the fire is still under investigation, and that is why we need to ask NESO to investigate the situation thoroughly. If there are lessons to be learned more generally relating to the issue my noble friend has raised, of course we will take them very seriously.