Asked by: Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 25 June (HL8482), what provisions are in place to ensure that the electric relays of the fibre networks to which Airwave sites are connected would continue to work during a prolonged power outage.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Airwave service was designed to continue to operate in the event of an extended power outage. Extensive audits of the circuits were undertaken during the commissioning of the service to ensure that the network equipment, eg relays, between the exchanges and the base stations were able to operate in the event of a mains electricity failure.
Asked by: Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 6 June (HL8104), whether the existing emergency services communications network, Airwave, would operate during a prolonged power outage.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
ESMCP is working with representatives from the emergency services to determine which elements of the Emergency Services Network require resilience enhancements in addition to those that have already been delivered. All ESMCP suppliers are required to have business continuity plans in place, and resilience against extended power outages is achieved using a range of technical solutions that include tow to site and fixed generators and batteries.
Asked by: Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 6 June (HL8104), what steps they intend to take to ensure the Emergency Services Network will continue to operate during a prolonged power outage.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Airwave network would continue to operate in the event of a prolonged power outage. A significant proportion of Airwave sites were fitted with additional power resilience to ensure that sites could run for a minimum of 5 days on autonomous power.