House of Commons Hansard Debates for 17 Apr 1996 (pt 48)

BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE

That the Order [25th March] relating to the Family Law Bill [Lords] shall apply to any sitting day on which the House resolves itself into a Committee on those provisions of the Bill committed to a Committee of the whole House; and proceedings in the said Committee may be taken, though opposed, after Ten o'clock.--[Mr. McLoughlin.]

NORTHERN IRELAND (ENTRY TO NEGOTIATIONS, ETC) BILL

Ordered,

That, in respect of the Northern Ireland (Entry to Negotiations, Etc) Bill, notices of Amendments, new Clauses and new Schedules to be moved in Committee may be accepted by the Clerks at the Table before the Bill has been read a second time.--[Mr. McLoughlin.]

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Gas Supplies (Scotland)

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.--[Mr. McLoughlin.]

10.14 pm

Mr. John Home Robertson (East Lothian): Friday29 December 1995 was the coldest day in a week of perishing cold weather in Scotland. But when my constituents in Prestonpans, Cockenzie and Port Seton woke up that morning, many of them found that the frost was gripping their bedrooms and kitchens as well as their gardens, because the gas supply to 4,180 households had failed.

It took up to three days to turn the gas on again, so more than 10,000 people in my constituency had a horrible Hogmanay weekend, relying on emergency soup kitchens while the frost burst the water pipes in their homes. There was a similiar failure in the gas supply at Stonehouse in Lanarkshire, and my hon. Friend the Member for Clydesdale (Mr. Hood) may wish to refer to that later in the debate.

This major failure of the gas supply got some attention from the national media, and British Gas's distribution company, TransCo, had to bring in 150 engineers from as far away as Brighton and Cornwall to reinstate our local gas supply in East Lothian. I would like to express my constituents' thanks to those engineers, who did a good job in difficult circumstances when I am sure that they would have preferred to be spending the holiday week with their families at home.

Three months later, the Director General of Gas Supply published the findings of the Ofgas inquiry into this incident. I am sorry to say that the Ofgas report has whitewashed the minor points and missed the main points altogether. The main point surely is that the circumstances were not unpredictable, so the failure of the gas supply should not have been allowed to happen. I am not satisfied that my constituents' experiences have been taken seriously, and I fear that similar failures will occur elsewhere in the future if we do not take steps to impose better standards on this highly profitable privatised industry. That is why I am raising this matter in the House.

I will give a brief summary of the events in Prestonpans, Cockenzie and Port Seton at the end of December. As I have said, the weather was extremely cold. In Edinburgh, the temperature dropped to minus 8 deg C on Wednesday 27th, minus 12 deg C on Thursday, minus 13 deg C on Friday and minus 14 deg C on Saturday 30 December. But it was several degrees colder in other parts of Scotland. Both Glasgow and Aberdeen experienced temperatures of minus 20 deg C during that week.

Evidently the main gas supply into that part of my constituency was not big enough to meet the morning and evening peak demands when people were heating their homes and cooking meals. There is a gasholder at Preston Links that fills up when demand is low, to boost the local supply at times of peak demand. The gasholder is checked regularly, and on 27 December it had 20 per cent. less gas than it should have had, and the pressure in the system was low.

If TransCo had been paying any attention to the weather forecast, it would have realised that things were going to get worse, and it should have taken steps to avoid

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the crisis that followed. But it did nothing. On the night of the 28th, the gasholder stock ran out, the incoming supply could not keep up with the demand for gas and the pressure in the system fell dangerously low, so all the gas customers in the area--4,180 households, more than 10,000 people--were cut off early in the morning of29 December.

The gas supply system had collapsed, and it was in a dangerous condition because air could have been drawn into the supply pipes. So it was necessary to isolate street sections, check each householder's gas installation and bleed off the air in the system before restoring the gas supply. That was a major task, involving 150 engineers, including 100 who came up from England. Some households got their gas supplies restored within 24 hours, but the unluckier ones had to wait for up to three days in very cold weather.

East Lothian district council and Lothian regional council, together with the police and emergency services, had to go into action to provide support for elderly and disabled people, and to set up emergency reception centres and catering in the two local community centres. British Gas used its GasCare register to help to identify those most at risk, and information was provided through an emergency telephone service and the local media. TransCo helpfully distributed hundreds of electric heaters, but it was not altogether surprising that the resulting surge in demand for electricity in one street led to a temporary failure in the electricity supply, as if things were not bad enough already.

I kept in close touch with the situation, and I was advised that the official standards of service for the gas industry would require the payment of compensation of £20 a day to affected householders. But of course, at that stage, everyone was rightly concentrating on the main objective of restoring the gas supply, which was eventually completed just in time for Hogmanay. There were still burst waterpipes to repair on 1 January as people began to count their costs, and TransCo started looking for excuses.

TransCo rightly recognised the risk of a public relations disaster if it were to try to sidestep its liability to pay compensation. So it offered the two local community councils the princely sum of £1,000 each. It has not offered to contribute towards the substantial costs incurred by the local authorities--which I understand run into tens of thousands of pounds--but it did make the appropriate £20-a-day payments to affected householders "as a good will gesture". It stipulated that it was an ex gratia payment rather than fulfilment of any obligation, let alone an admission of liability. That bothers me, Mr. Deputy Speaker.