Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, on what dates the Government held COBRA meetings in respect of Storm Arwen.

As a matter of policy, the Government does not comment on matters related to COBR.

However, we can confirm that Ministers and officials from across government took several measures in response to Storm Arwen.

The Defence Secretary oversaw the deployment of 297 military personnel to support civil authorities in the response. These personnel helped two Local Resilience Forums in the provision of welfare in northeast England, and assisted the Scottish Government in their response in the Grampian region.

The Prime Minister spoke to the chief executive of Northern Powergrid to discuss the ongoing work to restore power in the affected areas. He also spoke with local community leaders in Northumbria, Durham and Darlington, and Lt Col Mark Steed, who coordinated the military involvement in the response in northeast England.

Further to this, The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy gave a statement to Parliament at the time and The Minister for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change responded to an Urgent Question on 6 December.

Last week, the Government published an interim report on Storm Arwen review: Government publishes interim report on Storm Arwen review - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)