Question
Laying in three days’ supplies in the Northern Isles is what we do if we are confident that we are having a mild winter. Just four years ago, parts of Shetland were without electricity for six days, so resilience looks different in different parts of the country. To take the Minister back to his answer to the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty), the Government recently launched a consultation on critical undersea infrastructure, security and resilience, in which they seemed to see the answer as one of regulation and legislation. As the hon. Gentleman told the Minister, we need the capacity to effect repairs to undersea cables, and to do so without long delays, as currently occur. Will he take away that need and the experience of my constituents in recent years, who have suffered a number of digital outages as a consequence?
Answer
The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to raise this issue. He and I have discussed it previously, and he explained with great clarity the impact of the loss of that capability on his constituents. I hope he gets a sense of the seriousness with which we take it, but I will write to him and the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty) with more details of the work we are doing.20% vibes
Verdict: RED (12/100) DEFERRED
The question asked whether the Government will address the gap in repair capacity behind the Northern Isles outage. The reply acknowledges the concern and says the Minister understands its impact, but it never says whether action will be taken. It defers the substance by promising to write with details of the work being done, so the asker does not yet have a committed answer and may need to ask again.
How we got there
| Question item | Coverage | Specificity | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Will the Minister take away the need for capacity to carry out repairs to undersea cables without long delays, and the experience of constituents in the Northern Isles who have suffered digital outages as a consequence? | Deferred | Hedged | The reply acknowledges the Northern Isles outage concern and says the Minister understands its impact, but it never states whether the Government will address the repair-capacity gap. It defers the substance by promising to write with details of the work being done, and the sentences about seriousness and prior discussion are gesture rather than commitment. |