Number Six 'establishing facts' on who authorised SDE Limited to carry out works

Number Six says it's currently establishing the facts related to Tuesday's incident, including who authorised SDELimited to carry out the works.

Asked by GBC whether SDE Limited has accepted liability for the outage, the Government says that, together with the Electricity Authority, it will be meeting with the company next week to determine their position.

It says the legislation to ensure contractors can be held to account is expected to be ready in the next quarter.

Asked about the works themselves, the Government says planning permission is not needed to carry out site investigations to, for example, determine subsoil conditions via boreholes.

Number Six says it's customary for designers to gather information to assess the viability of a project, or start developing designs, before a project is submitted for planning approval.

It says, however, that they need to follow a long-established services' clearance process to obtain information on what's in the ground before carrying out any works.