Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans are in place to ensure that the UK is prepared for any impact resulting from a solar superstorm; and which department is responsible for those preparations.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This Government understands that good management of risk is essential for contingency planning, increasing the likelihood that the services we rely on day-to-day are available for citizens and ensuring that we can protect people’s health and safety.
The Department is the Lead Government Department for the risk of a severe space weather event. BEIS is therefore responsible for coordinating a Cross-Government work programme to ensure that appropriate preparedness and mitigation measures are in place so that impacts from severe space weather are minimised. BEIS working closely with the Met Office, Civil Contingencies Secretariat, other Government Departments, and academic partners has taken significant steps to increase the UK’s preparedness for major space weather events.
The Department will publish a new space weather strategy later this year, which will set out a five-year road map for how we intend to boost resilience and build on existing UK strength and capacity in this area, to continue to increase our preparedness for a severe space weather event.