Plaid Cymru Dwyfor Meirionnydd The Rt Hon. Liz Saville Roberts MP and Mabon ap Gwynfor MS

Plaid Cymru MP for Dwyfor Meirionnydd, Liz Saville Roberts has written to the UK government seeking clarity to points raised in the House of Commons during a statement on Storm Darragh. 

Storm Darragh response 

I am writing to you in your capacity as the Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office, following your response to my question in the House of Commons on 10 December. I asked whether you would speak to colleagues in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and commit to a UK Government assessment of the resilience of mobile and landline communication in Wales, alongside the support provided to elderly and vulnerable people during the switchover process1. In your response, you requested that I write to you directly. I hope the below outlines the issues I raised in more detail.  

Storm Darragh saw 150,000 homes across north and mid Wales and parts of Cheshire suffer power outages. On Tuesday, 10 December, around 600 homes in my constituency of Dwyfor Meirionnydd remained without electricity according to SP Energy. I understand that as of this morning, SP Energy is aware of around 40 properties that remain without power. While this reduction is testament to the hard work of engineers – alongside support from the community and local authority – I have significant concerns regarding the response in the aftermath of storm Darragh.   

Firstly, it is concerning that energy suppliers are dependent to a considerable degree on members of the public providing information on outages to the company directly, and especially so at a local level in relation to single property or cluster outages. Since BT/EE have been actively moving their customers from the older copper wire PSTN system to digital phone systems, this means that private households without an electricity supply have been unable to contact the energy supplier in the event of a power outage. I call on the UK Government to assess the resilience of mobile and landline communication in Wales, especially in relation to extreme weather events, and to work with energy suppliers and BT/EE to identify which communities are particularly vulnerable to a combination of energy outages and the switchover to digital.  

Key utilities’ dependence on electricity has become starkly clear in the response to storm Darragh. Mobile signal providers’ masts are reliant on electricity, meaning that people can be unable to alert the relevant agencies, or contact emergency services during an emergency when experiencing a power outage. The lack of power saw some households and communities lose their heating supply, access to communication methods, and their access to water cut off due to this dependence. It is crucial that lessons are learnt from this reliance on mains power, and the consequent impacts on our resilience to natural disasters and weather events.  

Unfortunately, as my colleague the honourable member for Caerfyrddin, Ann Davies, set out, when residents did have access to telephone communication, they encountered difficulties with the 105 emergency system. Among issues related to me were difficulties with the recognition of Welsh place names, the recognition of home addresses from phone numbers, and the identification of properties by house names through this system. The automated answering system appears to be particularly problematic in this regard. It is crucial that such issues are corrected, and that effective offline alerting mechanisms are in place and fully functional. I also urge both Government and energy companies to prioritise transparency in communication practices during future power disruptions, to allow households and businesses to make arrangements based on clear, honest information.    

Finally, the Chief Executive of Cyngor Gwynedd, Dafydd Gibbard, has raised specific concerns regarding the accuracy and completeness of the Priority Service Register. I understand that people can update themselves on the register, and that the energy supplier also works with partner organisations to maintain it. Given that the population in areas such as my constituency is characterised by an older demographic, including considerable numbers of people who move here upon retirement and thus often do not have family members living nearby, I would urge that we learn from the experience of storm Darragh and plan to ensure that the register is as comprehensive and up-to-date as possible. It particularly concerns me that people recently discharged from hospital are not included, and that there does not appear to be a direct line of contact with the local Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to this effect. As such, I urge the UK Government to undertake a review on the adequacy of the Priority Service Register, and how the Register can safeguard more people in future extreme weather events and emergencies.  

Storm Darragh has made clear that crucial lessons need to be learnt to strengthen national resilience in the face of extreme weather events. Considering the issues I have raised in this letter, I urge you within your role as the Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office to work together with cross-departmental colleagues, the Welsh Government, local stakeholders, and the relevant utility companies to implement a review of the emergency response to Storm Darragh across Wales, alongside current arrangements as set out under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. This would include an assessment of the resilience of mobile and landline communication in rural areas of Wales, especially in the event of power outages.  

I look forward to your response. 

Rt Hon. Liz Saville Roberts MP