Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Deputy Leader of the House of Lords, House of Lords; Labour)

I should like to inform the House that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is close to concluding its sale process for the disposal of land adjacent to Sellafield in Cumbria.

I hope to be able to announce the successful bidder—who intends to develop the site for new nuclear power generation—shortly.

Proceeds from the sale of this site will be used by the NDA to offset the cost of decommissioning and to further its core mission. A successful outcome of the sale process will further demonstrate that major energy companies are gearing up for significant investment in low carbon energy in the UK.

I will place details of the outcome of this sale process, including the sum raised and the identity of the bidder, in the Libraries of the House.

Any new nuclear power station development will be subject to the regulatory and other consenting processes.

The land to be sold has been nominated into the Government's strategic siting assessment process which assesses sites for their suitability for new nuclear power stations. The Government will be consulting on their assessment of the sites that are potentially suitable for new nuclear power stations as part of their consultation on the draft national policy statement for nuclear power generation which will be published this autumn.