§ Mr. Gordon Brownasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the weather centres in the United Kingdom which are used to calculate temperatures when help for heating costs in extremely severe weather is being assessed; and what were (a) the lowest temperatures recorded at each centre in January and (b) the lowest temperatures which had to be achieved at each centre before the trigger levels for extremely severe weather payments to be made were reached.
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§ Dr. Boyson[pursuant to his reply,8 February 1984, c. 676]: The 17 weather stations in Great Britain from which information about weather conditions is obtained each week are listed in the table. For each station, the table shows the trigger level — the level which the Chief Supplementary Benefit Officer has indicated would, in his view, mean that there had been a period of exceptionally severe weather in any given week and that single payments regulation 26 should therefore be applied — and the temperature level for the coldest week in January 1984. Both these levels are measured in 'degree days', a measure of temperature that is closely correlated to the amount of heating likely to be required over a given period. Each degree below the base temperature (15.5°c) for a period of twenty-four hours represents one degree day and the figures in the table represent the total number of such degree days over a period of one week (Sunday to Saturday).
Weather station Coldest week in January 1984 (degree days) Trigger Level (degree days) Aberporth 85.4 108 Aberdeen 124.2 129 Birmingham 99.4 127 Boulmer 101.5 122 Bournemouth 88.5 119 Bristol 85.6 119 Carlisle 100.9 127 Finningley 114.8 120 Glasgow 112.2 126 Heathrow 86.5 119 Honnington 100.0 128 Leeming 114.3 126 Leuchars 116.6 122 Manchester 97.0 121 Plymouth 78.8 105 Stornoway 104.1 111 Wick 117.3 119