Clause 63 - Charges
Energy Bill [Lords]
4:00 pm

Mr Norman Baker (Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Lewes, Liberal Democrat)

I seek clarification from the Under-Secretary of what the clause will lead to. I would like an example of where those charges might be levelled.

I presume that the clause concerns recouping money from, for example, British Energy. If that is the case, can the Under-Secretary say how agreement would be reached between ''that person''—to quote subsection (1)(a)—and the police authority, or how that would be determined by the Secretary of State, as provided for in subsection (1)(b). What sort of services will be recouped in terms of costs? Will the Under-Secretary also confirm that the full cost will be recovered, and that there will not be a net expenditure to the police authority?

Mr Nigel Griffiths (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Trade and Industry; Edinburgh South, Labour)

I hope that I can help. Under the current funding of the constabulary as part of the UKAEA, the costs of providing policing services to BNFL and Urenco are recovered. Within the UKAEA, the constabulary is treated as a separate accounting unit, recovering its costs from internal customers.

The new arrangements for the constabulary will be based on those that already exist, which appear to work well. The constabulary polices a few well-defined organisations, and the proposed arrangements are therefore fairly straightforward to administer. As is standard practice for non-departmental public bodies, the details of the authority's financial arrangements will be set out in its financial memorandum. I hope that

that satisfies the hon. Gentleman that the established arrangements, which appear to have served us well, will continue.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause 63 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 64 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Schedule 12 agreed to.