Metropolitan Police Authority receives report into New Scotland Yard power failure

44/03
20 June 2003

The Metropolitan Police Authority today received a report into the circumstances surrounding the major power failure that affected New Scotland Yard and the Victoria area on 4 June, after expressing its concern over the Metropolitan Police’s resilience to major infrastructure problems.

The Authority had been extremely disturbed that the efficiency of the service provided to Londoners was jeopardised when the Yard’s backup electrical system failed, although the emergency 999 service and the police radio system were effectively maintained by being switched to local station systems.

Toby Harris, MPA Chair, said:

“It is essential that a backup should take over when the mains system fails and we wanted to be reassured that it would operate effectively if the need arose in the future.

“Following the report back to us today, we are satisfied the problems have been rectified, and the MPS is doing all it can to ensure there can be no recurrence.

"To some extent this was a blessing in disguise since it allowed officers to test out a number of contingency measures which would have a vital role in the event of a major terrorist incident. Vital systems need to be regularly checked and a state of constant vigilance maintained. The lessons learned will be taken forward in a forum with other blue light services and others concerned with emergency response to catastrophic incidents.”

Notes to editors

The report was delivered to the MPA’s Co-ordination and Policing Committee in camera, due to its contents containing security-sensitive information.

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