HC Deb 23 March 1981 vol 1 cc619-20
8. Mr. Hooley

asked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will undertake that no further action will be taken on the nuclear power programme until the Government have completed their consideration of the report of the Select Committee on this subject.

Mr. Norman Lamont

No, Sir.

Mr. Hooley

Is the Minister aware that the report has blown sky-high most of the assumptions on which his absurd 13–15 gigawatt nuclear power programme was based, both in terms of the need for this group of power stations from the point of view of demand and in terms of the capacity of the nuclear power industry to build one station per year for the next 10 years?

Mr. Lamont

The hon. Gentleman ignores the fact that the Secretary of State's statement of December 1979 made it clear that future ordering of nuclear stations would depend upon electricity demand at the time and on the performance of the industry. It would depend upon the circumstances at the time. The two immediate next steps—the construction of the AGRs and proceeding up to the inquiry into the PWR—were not recommended against by the Select Committee, but we shall, of course, come to the House with a response to the Committee's report.

Mr. Rost

Is it not clear that the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Mr. Hooley) has not read the Select Committee's report? Will my hon. Friend confirm that the main thrust of the report was not an anti-nuclear stance, but simply the expression of concern that, because of its present structure and the choice of reactor, the British nuclear industry will not be able to build nuclear power stations as cheaply and economically as our competitors, and that we shall therefore not necessarily get the cheaper electricity that countries such as France will have unless we do something more positive about it?

Mr. Lamont

I agree with the first part of my hon. Friend's question, and also with his second point. If we are to get the full benefits of nuclear power in this country, we must build stations more to time and to cost than we have in the past.

Mr. Eadie

Does the hon. Gentleman realise that, in effect, he has just announced a retreat from nuclear power on behalf of the Government in that he has announced that the Government will make a statement later about nuclear power policy? However, has not the reappraisal of the whole question been caused by the economic recession that the Government have engineered?

Mr. Lamont

The hon. Gentleman is quite mistaken. My right hon. Friend made it perfectly clear at the time of the statement on nuclear power in December 1979 that what he was announcing was the electricity industry's best estimate of the requirements of nuclear power over the next decade. At the same time, he clearly said that it would be developed step by step in accordance with the state of the economy and the state of demand for electricity. If the hon. Gentleman reads the Official Report, he will find that that is so.