Clause 53
Energy Bill
5:45 pm
Charles Hendry (Shadow Minister, Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform; Wealden, Conservative)
This clause sets out clear rules on decommissioning and waste handling programmes. We would all agree that this could not be a more serious issue, which goes right to the heart of the debate about the safety of a new nuclear programme. Anyone breaking laws on this will be in absolute breach of the rules and regulations that Parliament has put in place to ensure that new build nuclear programmes will be as safe as possible, not to mention the breach of trust of all the assurances that would have been given. We need penalties that would reflect the seriousness of such an offence.
Amendment No. 36 would add the words
“in a case of dishonesty”
so that it would be clear that the action has been wilful and deliberate. If the action happened accidentally or inadvertently, it should be treated with a different level of severity. Amendment No. 35 relates to the severity of the penalty for such breaches of the law. Two years does not seem a very serious jail sentence for someone who has failed to comply with an approved funded decommissioning programme. Such a failure could have serious consequences for public health, and a sentence of five years’ imprisonment seems more appropriate.