There is a “major hole at the centre of government” over the resilience of the UK’s critical national infrastructure to climate change, a parliamentary committee has warned.
The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (JCNSS) said no ministers were currently responsible for the issue, and that the minister previously in charge had refused to give evidence.
Amid a heatwave seeing the potential for new record temperatures in Britain, the committee released a letter hitting out at a “pattern of disrespectful behaviour by government ministers towards select committees”.
It comes days after Priti Patel and Dominic Raab cancelled their appearances before other parliamentary committees because of the Conservative leadership election, despite remaining in their posts as home and justice secretary.
The Home Affairs Committee and Joint Committee on Human Rights both voiced concerns over government accountability and the scrutiny of new laws.
The JCNSS session was to examine how critical national infrastructure, which includes power networks, railway lines and roads, is being prepared for the effects of climate change.
The committee said the Cabinet Office minister Michael Ellis was due to give evidence at a session on 4 July but cancelled days before with a letter saying he was “not best placed to give evidence at the session”, which he regarded as a “technical and specialist matter”.
He remained in his post following the breakdown of Boris Johnson’s government but wrote to the committee claiming that other ministers would be more appropriate because he was a “convening minister only, rather than a minister with responsibility for the policies in question”.
Dame Margaret Beckett, chair of the JCNSS, wrote to the head of the Cabinet Office, calling the letter “extraordinary”, pointing to written evidence from April where Mr Ellis called himself the minister “responsible for resilience and security” adding: “I am committed to tackling and improving the chronic risk posed by climate change”.
Dame Margaret said: “The unfortunate impression that we are gaining from this exchange is that there are no ministers with responsibility for the resilience of critical national infrastructure to the effects of climate change, nor for cross-government climate adaptation efforts… this would be quite a shocking admission from the government at this stage in our inquiry, and one on which we might be forced to draw some quite damning conclusions in our forthcoming report.
“It would suggest a major hole at the centre of government in preparation and planning on a crucial area of national security.”
The committee chair warned that the incident “forms part of a pattern of disrespectful behaviour by government ministers towards select committees, including late cancellations and refusals to give evidence”.
The exchange of letters was made public on Monday, which was forecast to see new record high temperatures in parts of the UK.
The heatwave was having widespread effects on critical national infrastructure, with people urged to avoid unnecessary travel because of buckling railway lines and melting roads.
