Speeches by Sullivan.

“I have one final question, Minister. COP26 in Glasgow, in 2021, was perhaps the halcyon day of political consensus around the need to move towards clean power and energy independence. A key part of that was the role of renewable energy. What efforts are you making to bring back that consensus, which has fragmented, per…”

“Yes, I think I read yesterday about maybe doing your washing when it is sunny and windy outside, so a lot of this will be about behavioural change. I am sure you will appreciate that a lot of the language about some of this stuff can be quite opaque to the average person on the street, so will there be some work to giv…”

“Okay. We know that constraint costs reached £1.8 billion last year—an eye-watering sum that, as you say, could be put to better use in bringing down consumer bills. How much of a reduction in those costs do you expect from consumer flexibility and giving the consumer more control?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Mundell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Colne Valley (Paul Davies) for speaking with such compassion and insight, and for sharing Leah’s journey—one I am afraid many will recognise. I am chair of the all-party parliamentary group on endometriosis, which is launc…”

“Mr Smith, would you like to add anything to that?”

“The thing that I am struggling to get my head around is that although this guidance was already in place, it seems as if resilience was not given the consideration that it merited, particularly for our island communities. We have already heard that other providers were able to have contracts in place that allowed them …”

“Ofcom guidance states that all networks are responsible for ensuring resilience, regardless of what your own infrastructure is. Clearly there have been examples where you have failed to ensure that resilience, particularly for the island communities. Do you accept that you have fallen short of that guidance in the past…”

“I understand that Shetland Telecom was able to make the switch. Regardless, it does not detract from your responsibilities under the Ofcom guidance. Do you have any comment you would wish to make on that?”

“Thank you. I do think it is important that lessons are learned, because we had the situation where some people were left absolutely cut off, while others in the same areas had connectivity, so you were in a position of haves and have-nots. That was clearly not a tenable situation. You mentioned the guidance perhaps hav…”

“That would be helpful, thank you. Ms Davidson?”

“You said that the guidance has driven real-world improvements. It seems to me, from what I have heard this morning and in other sessions, that what has driven some improvement, particularly in terms of resilience, is the fallout from the damage to subsea cables and the failures in the resilience from some providers. Wo…”

“To what extent do you believe that providers are adhering to the guidance? It seems quite retrospective at the moment.”

“What barriers do you think exist to prevent companies from fully complying? It is my belief, from what we have heard earlier, that there has not been full compliance and that is what caused some of the issues.”

“You will be aware of the Ofcom guidance on network resilience. Do you think this guidance adequately addresses the issues in network resilience?”

“Has some of that best practice been shared here in the UK and taken forward? We have heard very much about the learning points from what happened last year here. Clearly there will be examples from elsewhere. I think it is incumbent on all providers not just to learn the lessons, but to look ahead and anticipate any fu…”

“What actions do you think are needed to overcome many of these challenges?”

“Thank you, Mr Smith?”

“To be fair, I don’t think the guidance was observed, and I think the Committee has heard the evidence of that from previous witnesses from island communities. Ms Davidson, would you like to comment?”

“Are there any examples from other jurisdictions where there are particularly effective resilience arrangements in place? Obviously we want to compare like with like, so other jurisdictions that have similar geographies and challenges.”

“I will reframe the question slightly. Who does this well? Who does resilience well? Which other countries?”