The Government has provided £700m to help the National Health Service cope with winter pressures.

There have been no direct requests from individual acute, ambulance or mental health trusts for emergency financial assistance to cope with upcoming winter pressures.

The Department for Transport has undertaken a great deal of work with the transport sector to prepare for this winter season and all key transport operators, including local authorities, train operating companies, the Highways Agency, Network Rail and airports, have contingency plans in place to deal with any winter weather that may be encountered.

The Department continues to liaise with salt producers and as in previous years started to monitor salt stock holdings being held across the country. Analysis from a recent stock survey highlights the Highways Agency (HA) and local highway authorities are holding over one million tonnes of road salt. The Government has also retained an emergency salt stockpile of around 400,000 tonnes for this winter season. In addition both the Highways Agency and local highways authorities have winter service vehicles for use on the road network, including 500 vehicles for dealing with any incidents that may occur on the strategic road network.

It must, however, be recognised that severe winter weather may cause some disruption to the transport network. If travel is disrupted then we expect operators and highway authorities to do everything they can to keep passengers and road users informed whilst ensuring that the networks resume services as quickly as possible.

In respect of what financial provision has been made for possible travel disruption, the Department for Transport monitors its financial position regularly, including considering any risks such as poor weather that could affect its forecast of expenditure, and manages these within the context of its overall budget.

National Grid is responsible for procuring New Balancing Services to provide reserve capacity. Procurement is subject to a methodology approved by Ofgem.

National Grid announced in October that it has procured an additional 1.1GW of reserve capacity for this winter. This will cost less than £1 per household and will increase capacity margins from around 4% to over 6%.

The annual cost to the National Health Service in England of cold housing is reported to be between £850 million¹ and £1.36 billion².This does not include additional spending by social services, or economic losses through absences from work. Total costs to the NHS and the country are unknown³.

The Cold Weather Plan for England ³ is a framework intended to protect the population from harm to health from cold weather, including vulnerable older people. It aims to prevent the major avoidable effects on health during periods of cold weather in England by alerting people to the negative health effects of cold weather, and enabling them to prepare and respond appropriately.

Help is available through Cold Weather Payments which provide more targeted support for vulnerable low-income groups. The Government has permanently increased Cold Weather Payments from £8.50 to £25 for the duration of this Parliament for each qualifying period of cold weather.

This winter over 2 million low income households, including over 1.4 million poorer pensioners, will receive a discount of £140 off their electricity bill through the Warm Home Discount scheme.

Winter Fuel Payments also provide assurance to older people, who may suffer the worst impacts of a progressive condition, so that they can keep warm during the winter months. In addition, around 482,000 low income and vulnerable homes have received energy efficiency measures under Energy Companies Obligation.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change have commissioned work that will allow them to model the potential cost-savings to health and social care services from energy efficiency measures and other interventions.

Notes:

1. Department of Health (2010) ‘Winter kills’, in 2009 Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer

2. The Cost of Cold: Why we need to protect the health of older people in winter

3. Public Health England (2014) The Cold Weather Plan for England. Making the case: why long-term strategic planning for cold weather is essential to health and wellbeing

The impact of cold homes on the health of older people has been discussed internally within the Department (DH) during the development of policy initiatives to prevent major avoidable effects on health during periods of cold weather. These initiatives include the The Cold Weather Plan for England, Keep Warm Keep Well leaflet and the Get Ready For Winter campaign hosted by the Met Office.

Further discussions were held at the Annual Cold Weather Plan seminar – this stakeholder event brings together colleagues from the DH, Local Government Association, NHS England, Public Health England, academia and the voluntary and community sector to discuss issues around the cold weather plan and how to best support local action. In addition, discussions were held at the Health officials working group – this is a regular meeting attended by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, DH and Public Health England. The aim of this group is to share information on cold weather, fuel poverty and health impacts with a view to ensure the fuel poverty strategy is aligned with health policy.

NHS England advised that on 14 November it decided not to publish the winter weekly report for week ending 12 November because the statistical and operational commentary was not finalised in time.

On 20 November NHS England decided to suspend the publication of the winter weekly report for week ending 19 November, in order to undertake a short review of information requirements. The review will consider what data to include in daily collections, whether the burden of reporting can be reduced, and assess alternative information sources for inclusion in future reporting.

All acute and general NHS and foundation trusts submit data for weekly accident and emergency situation reports all year round.

NHS England advised that on 14 November it decided not to publish the winter weekly report for week ending 12 November because the statistical and operational commentary was not finalised in time.

On 20 November NHS England decided to suspend the publication of the winter weekly report for week ending 19 November, in order to undertake a short review of information requirements. The review will consider what data to include in daily collections, whether the burden of reporting can be reduced, and assess alternative information sources for inclusion in future reporting.

All acute and general NHS and foundation trusts submit data for weekly accident and emergency situation reports all year round.

Public Health in Cornwall has estimated that 300 people in Cornwall might die from the cold this winter because they are living in cold homes. Last week the Government introduced the first proper fuel poverty strategy to eradicate that totally unacceptable situation by 2030. Will my right hon. Friend join me in praising the work being done in Cornwall by a partnership of over 30 organisations in the Winter Wellness programme to ensure that people stay warm and well this winter?

I commend my hon. Friend, who, as many of us know, has worked enormously hard on a whole range of health issues in her constituency. In particular, I know that she has helped deliver the Winter Wellness programme with a number of local organisations. It is important to highlight what help and advice is available for people who need it most in order to stay warm. The Government’s cold weather plan has a series of cost-effective and simple measures that people can take to reduce the harm caused by cold weather.

This information is not available in the format requested. The Health and Social Care Information Centre has advised that the term 'cold-related illness' is too broad to be indexed in the classification system used within the Hospital Episode Statistics database.

On 28 October, National Grid published its annual Winter Outlook 2014 report, which analyses the current level of security of electricity supply in Great Britain. This includes an estimate of peak electricity demand for this winter, but no separate assessment is published for businesses or data centres.

In order to ensure security of supply for all businesses, households and industry, National Grid announced it will procure 1.1GW of additional de-rated capacity through Supplemental Balancing Reserve (SBR) and Demand Side Balancing Reserve (DSBR) for the winter of 2014/15.

DECC supports the decisive action taken by National Grid and Ofgem which will mean we have secure electricity supplies, even with further unexpected outages or a very cold winter.

Yes, we have. The capacity gap was actually smaller at the start of the last decade, but of course we have modelled for these things, and crucially, with National Grid, we have ensured that power stations are on standby to secure energy supplies this winter.

Just a few years ago, the country came close to a major national power outage because of a three-week blocking, high-pressure weather system that sat over the UK, resulting in lots of cold nights and very little wind. Has the Department modelled for such an eventuality again, given that the capacity gap is even smaller now?

On 28 October National Grid announced that it will procure 1.1 GW of additional de-rated capacity though Supplemental Balancing Reserve (SBR) and Demand Side Balancing Reserve (DSBR) for the winter of 2014/15. DECC supports the decisive action taken by National Grid and Ofgem and views the amount procured as a sensible and prudent step in order to provide the necessary degree of resilience for times of very high demand.

This action will increase capacity margins from around 4% to over 6%; a higher level than we had between 2005/06 and 2007/8 and well within the Government’s reliability standard.

This means that we will continue to benefit from secure electricity supplies even with further unexpected outages or a very cold winter.

Energy policy is devolved in Northern Ireland, and the responsibility of the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Northern Ireland. I have had no conversations with power companies in Northern Ireland about their preparations for bad weather.