The Government recognises the challenges faced by farmers during the recent adverse weather conditions. The main difficulties appear to have been with feed deliveries, milk collections and collection of fallen stock. To assist farmers, Government authorised extensions to the normal driving time limits and agreed that the collection of fallen stock could be delayed. We continue to monitor the situation with the National Fallen Stock Company.

As in previous winters the Department for Transport is working closely with the transport sector to ensure that they are prepared for winter.

All key transport operators, including local highway authorities and Highways England, have winter contingency plans in place.

In addition, I recently wrote to the leaders of all local highway authorities in England reminding them of their responsibilities regarding preparation for winter and the need for robust contingency plans in place to mitigate against any significant weather we may encounter over the winter period, including snow and ice and flooding.

The Astute class submarines are the largest, most advanced and most powerful attack submarines ever operated by the Royal Navy, combining world-leading sensors, design and weaponry in a versatile vessel. The Royal Navy maintains world-wide deployability with its submarines, this includes under-ice capability.

We do not discuss the detail of such submarine operations, as this would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.

The UK Armed Forces conduct a wide range of training to operate in cold weather environments. Information on the full range of activities is not held centrally in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

The Department has not made any such estimate as a result of snowfall in the last 12 months, however, the Department commissioned a review of the resilience of the UK transport networks in the face of extreme snow conditions in 2010.

‘The Resilience of England’s Transport Systems in Winter’ estimated the welfare cost of domestic transport disruption from severe winter weather was around £280 million per day in England. The direct economic costs alone amount to £130 million per day.

The transport sectors have taken steps to implement the lessons from those severe winters and to implement the recommendations from the review. For example, on the rail network additional specialised snow and ice clearing trains have been procured, and on the third rail network south of the Thames heating elements have been installed at critical locations to prevent the third rail from icing up. In terms of aviation readiness, since 2009/2010 Heathrow has invested £36m, and Gatwick £15m, in winter operational readiness.

In a survey conducted by the Department in mid-November 2015, total salt stocks being held for use on the roads, including emergency salt reserve (salt of last resort) is approximately 2.2 million tonnes. The findings of this survey highlight that local highway authorities are holding robust salt stocks, have been replenishing their stocks and have entered this winter season in a resilient position.

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%.

Preparing for cold weather forms part of the normal cycle of activities which the energy supply industry undertakes each year. Each gas and electricity supplier undertakes a number of actions in anticipation of cold weather as part of annual preparations for winter. These include, for example:

Ensuring asset health and availability; checks that key maintenance and construction has been completed are undertaken and that outstanding key defects are monitored and resolved.

Strategic Spares: Stocks are reviewed and mobile plant such as generators and compressors are maintained. Diesel stocks are reviewed.

Contingency Plans and Resourcing: Plans are reviewed and updated as are resource deployment/work pattern options.

Staff Mobility: Availability of four wheeled drive resources, snow chains etc. are confirmed and located strategically across the networks to ensure adequate geographic cover.

Electricity margins are tighter for this winter than previous years but that reflects a move from unusually large margins back to levels typical of the last decade. The Government has a range of current and planned policies to ensure that margins do not become unacceptably tight in future years.

National Grid's 2013 winter outlook likewise concluded that the UK gas market should continue to provide secure supplies. The UK market is strengthened by import infrastructure which has increased five fold over the past decade and which allows us to access diverse supply sources (north sea producers, pipelines from Norway and the rest of Europe, and shipments of liquefied natural gas).

DECC has coordinated with industry and consumer organisations campaigns to encourage consumers to prepare for winter by buying oil early during the summer months and to join oil buying clubs. Information has been disseminated through the Met Office "Get Ready for Winter" website, and made available to local resilience forums. I wrote to MPs in October to encourage them to support the Buy Oil Early campaign and the new FPS Code of Practice and Customer Charter in their constituencies.

DECC has monitored the market for heating oil and LPG with weekly reports from trade bodies FPS and UK LPG. The industry has reported that overall heating oil and LPG suppliers have been operating normally, however there have been some delays to supply households in flooded areas. DECC and DCLG have set up a pilot scheme for LRFs and industry to have joint contact arrangements in the event disruptions in fuel supplies to provide advice to suppliers on whether a household or a community is vulnerable to enable fuel suppliers to prioritise deliveries in periods of peak demand.

DECC has also worked with the Government Winter Resilience Network on messages to local authorities to encourage that road networks to essential services, such as hospitals, nursing homes, refineries, oil terminals and retail filling stations, are accessible for deliveries of fuel.

Preparing for winter forms part of the normal cycle of activities which the energy supply industry undertakes each year.

Each gas and electricity supplier undertakes a number of actions in advance of the onset of winter. These include, for example:

Ensuring Asset Health and Availability: Checks that key maintenance and construction has been completed are undertaken and that outstanding key defects are monitored and resolved.

Strategic Spares: Stocks are reviewed and mobile plant such as generators and compressors are maintained. Diesel stocks are reviewed.

Contingency Plans and Resourcing: Plans are reviewed and updated as are resource deployment/work pattern options.

Staff Mobility: Availability of four-wheeled drive resources, snow chains etc. are confirmed and located strategically across the networks to ensure adequate geographic cover.

Electricity margins are tighter for this winter than previous years; that reflects a move from unusually large margins back to levels typical of the last decade. The Government has a range of policies to ensure that margins do not become unacceptably tight in future years.

National Grid's 2013 winter outlook likewise concludes that the UK gas market should continue to provide secure supplies. The UK market is strengthened by import infrastructure which has increased five fold over the past decade and which allows us to access diverse supply sources (North sea producers, pipelines from Norway and the rest of Europe, and shipments of liquefied natural gas).

In the downstream oil sector, my officials are working with suppliers to ensure they have robust contingency plans in place, and with other Government Departments to ensure that local contingency plans are ready to keep the roads open and provide help to vulnerable communities.

This year's Buy Oil Early campaign was launched on 11 September to encourage consumers to stock up early on heating oil and join oil buying groups where cost savings and delivery efficiencies can be found.

DECC is a member of the cross-HMG Winter Resilience Network, that meets on a weekly basis over the winter months to monitor forecasting and resilience issues across critical sectors. This provides early warning of potential incidents, and is a means of escalating issues between Departments, for example, if access roads to critical energy sites are not being kept clear.

National Grid in their Winter Outlook 2013-14 report have stated:

“Our peak weather corrected electricity demand forecast for this winter is 54.8 GW; this is our demand forecast should the weather be the same as long term average weather conditions. In any winter, however, there are milder spells and colder spells which drive fluctuations in demand around the weather corrected demand forecast. We forecast the peak Average Cold Spell (ACS) electricity demand to be 56.3 GW this winter.”

“For this winter, taking the latest data into account, our central forecast of electricity margin against peak (ACS) demand is 5%, broadly in line with the level published in Ofgem's Capacity Adequacy analysis in June. If, however, we have average weather throughout the winter, our central forecast of margin is 8%.”

DEFRA provided an immediate programme of assistance to farmers who have had to cope with the effects of the horrendous spring weather. This was set out in my written ministerial statement on 18 April 2013, Official Report, column 34WS.

I have placed a copy of the latest assessment made of farm incomes, for the year ending February 2013, in the Library of the House.

These forecasts are based on the information available in mid-January 2013 for prices, animal populations, marketings, crop areas and yield. Actual farm incomes for this period will be available at the end of October 2013.

The forecasts show that incomes are expected to fall for most farm types compared with the previous year. This is largely due to the extremely wet weather in 2012 and the poor growing and grazing season. The falls in income are also more pronounced as incomes were relatively high in 2010-11. The impact of the more recent adverse weather on farm incomes will not be reflected in these figures but will come through in the 2013-14 farm income forecasts published next January.

The continued bad weather in 2013 has been a severe blow. During these exceptional circumstances farmers will be allowed to bury or burn animals on farm land. We have also asked the National Fallen Stock Company to consider reduced costs for multiple collections of stock from the same farm.

The Government has also recently relaxed rules on driver hours to allow extra time for essential deliveries of animal feed to get through to farms and permitted

farmers with red diesel in their tractors to help grit and clear snow from public roads to help communities during the bad weather. More broadly we are supporting farmers by cutting unnecessary red tape, opening up new food export markets and fighting for reform of the common agricultural policy.

While no specific assessment has been made of the possible effects of further inclement weather, it is recognized that the weather is a factor that influences domestic tourism patterns and visitor expenditure (its impact on inbound visitors is much more limited). VisitEngland has worked with the Met Office to examine the impacts of weather forecasting and in particular how medium-term forecasts can impact on resorts. The inclement summer weather of recent years has caused destinations to examine more wet weather options for visitors and many are now offering a much wider choice of activities.

The Department does not collect the required data to assess the cost of a school closing due to inclement weather. We cannot, therefore, provide the figures requested.

While we cannot give an accurate assessment, local authorities may incur costs in relation to the services they provide to schools, such as school transport and catering services.

In the event of adverse weather conditions such as heavy snow, the Department expects head teachers to keep schools open for as many pupils as possible whenever it is reasonable for them to do so. In September 2010 the Department made changes to the law to address the perverse incentive for head teachers to close the entire school if a proportion of their pupils could not travel in because of adverse weather. Where a pupil is unable to get in the school can mark the register using absence code ‘Y', which means that the pupil's absence will not affect the school's absence figures.

The Department has revised its advice to schools setting out our expectations and dispelling a number of myths around health and safety and staffing issues relating to adverse weather conditions. The advice, which was e-mailed to local authorities on 29 January, can be found on the Department's website at:

http://tinyurl.com/37k7vmp