Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask His Majesty's Government what activities they are undertaking to support precision and reliability of atmospheric observation to improve weather forecasting.

Observations are an essential input in the production of weather forecasts. The Met Office utilises a comprehensive range of state of the art observing systems that fulfil a carefully prioritised set of requirements for measuring the atmosphere. These include satellites, weather radars, deep ocean buoys, radiosonde systems and land based observing stations across the UK and beyond. They are designed to meet detailed, internationally agreed performance standards and monitoring and incident management processes are in place to ensure compliance. The Met Office also has an ongoing research and development programme to exploit new technologies and deliver further enhancements to observations.