Jayne Kirkham

That sounds like an interesting proposal. Our local resilience centre was in Exeter, and I think that is why the category 1 responders did not declare a major incident; Exeter is a long way away from us, so I understand the hon. Gentleman’s idea of having a flood control centre. When Goretti hit, the Cabinet Office activated the national alert messaging. That was important and successful as an early-warning system, but it was impacted by the patchy mobile coverage. We need a more truthful method of measuring mobile coverage, and a means of applying pressure to the providers, so that they meet their obligations. Goretti also exposed the fact that most mobile masts do not have back-up generators or battery reserves, making them vulnerable to power loss. This contrasts with the expectations placed on water and electricity companies, which operate under more established resilience duties. Telecoms are just as essential, and the civil contingencies framework should reflect that in practice, not just in statute. During Goretti, many residents with no internet or mobile signal found that digital landlines did not work without power. Ofcom’s rules require only one hour of battery back-up for vulnerable customers, which is inadequate. An Ofcom technical report from last year noted that about two thirds of the population would be able to make emergency calls in a power outage of under an hour, but the number who could do so after six hours was redacted, and was described as being “far fewer”.