§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will initiate inquiries into the nature of weather forecasts provided for the south of England in respect of 15–16 October, and in particular the reasons for the discrepancies between the forecasts issued by his Department and the meteorological services of other countries on that night.
§ Mr. SainsburyThe Director-General of the Meteorological Office is already conducting an internal investigation into the nature and sequence of meteorological events surrounding the storm which struck the south and east of England on 15 and 16 October. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has asked Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer FRS, chairman of the University Grants Committee, and Professor Robert Pearce, head of the department of meteorology at Reading university, to examine the findings of that inquiry and to present their conclusions to him. He proposes to make these public. In the meantime, I do not wish to anticipate the outcome of the inquiries.