Orders of the Day — Energy Bill [Lords]

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 4:34 pm on 10 May 2004.

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Photo of Patricia Hewitt Patricia Hewitt Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry 4:34, 10 May 2004

The arrangements that we are making will make it quite clear, and transparently so, that the resources being dedicated to managing the nuclear legacy are used for that purpose.

The Bill will establish a non-departmental public body, the nuclear decommissioning authority, to manage those liabilities better, and that will be operational by April 2005, subject to the Bill's safe passage. The NDA will have further strategic control over all public sector civil nuclear liabilities. It will operate clearly and transparently, and by fostering competition for the management of sites, it will ensure that the best skills and expertise deliver the highest standards of clean-up most efficiently.

Chapter 3 modernises the existing policing arrangements for the nuclear industry, transferring the current UK Atomic Energy Agency constabulary to a newly created civil nuclear police authority, which will have responsibility for it. Chapters 4 and 5 include more minor updates and amendments to nuclear legislation, dealing with our international obligations in the event of a nuclear accident, and security of equipment and software relating to uranium enrichment and sensitive nuclear information.