Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has participated in cross-Government exercises simulating the potential impact of national blackouts on (a) health services, (b) emergency responders and (c) energy regulators used by healthcare services.

The Department has participated in a cross-Government exercise simulating the potential impacts of national power outages on health services and emergency responders. The Department has been working on the lessons identified from this exercise to improve the resilience of the health and social care sector against the risk of a national power outage. This includes developing response plans and participating in cross-sector exercises.

The Government, through the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, works closely with industry to continually improve and maintain the resilience of energy infrastructure, networks, and assets, including those offshore.