Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the resilience of overhead power cables and the case for moving these wires underground.

My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has commissioned a post-incident review into Storm Arwen to identify lessons and best practice for system resilience, including physical infrastructure, as well as communications, resourcing.

As the independent regulator for energy, Ofgem has also announced a review into the impact of Storm Arwen. This will focus on the role of the network companies in maintaining resilience of the system, which includes physical infrastructure, and their emergency response.