COMMONS AMENDMENTS (Hansard, 15 July 2004)

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 4 to 7.
The speed of proceedings also took me a bit by surprise, but we will deal with Amendment No. 8A later. I accept the gracious apology made by the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin of Roding, particularly on behalf of my noble friend Lord Davies of Oldham. I would not go as far as the noble Lord in criticising the proceedings in another place, but we can all understand how these matters arise. We will have a debate, and all government reports are debated in government time. I do not think that undermines the position of business managers, and it is hopefully a sufficient reassurance.
This group of amendments relate to the NDA clauses of the Bill and they cover three areas: the socioeconomic support for local communities; the laying of the NDA's strategy and plan before Parliament; and some minor drafting clarifications.
The Government recognise the importance of social and economic support for local communities, which are currently heavily dependent on the nuclear industry. We had a number of debates in Committee and in the House on that matter. We are certainly committed to ensuring that both the NDA and the site operators continue to play a full role in their communities.
The Bill has always provided for the NDA to give encouragement to and support for the social and economic life of local communities. Following representations made by noble Lords opposite, we did expand the scope for NDA activity to cover support for activities bringing environmental benefits to these communities.
At Third Reading in this House two more amendments were made to strengthen further the NDA's remit in this regard, requiring the NDA to give proper weight to its employment and contractual arrangements and to engender local confidence that the levels of support given by existing operators will be maintained and enhanced. The Government accepted the general purpose of these proposals. But the drafting of these amendments was a little ambiguous in legal terms and generated a risk that the NDA could be hindered in the discharge of its principal clean-up of responsibilities. The Government therefore introduced new amendments in another place which clarified the purpose of the original proposals while removing the risk that the NDA could be deflected.
Amendment No. 5 therefore replaces the drafting deleted by Amendment No. 4 to impose two new duties on the NDA: first, to have regard in particular to the extent to which the previous operator was 1369 supporting such activities before designation to the NDA and, secondly, to consider the obligations that should be imposed on its site operators or management contractors in respect of such activities.
That reflects the reality that the NDA will deliver its social and economic support predominantly through its site operators and its contractors, which are operating in the local community and will have the biggest impact. It will control this through its contractual arrangements. The amendment requires the NDA to show that it has given due consideration to local community support issues in entering into such contracts, with particular reference to current levels of local community support by the current site operators.
The NDA will therefore have to consider the extent to which bidders will support social, economic and environmental life in local communities having regard in particular to the previous level of support. The underlying objective here is to maintain or enhance that support for as long as NDA's site operators remain significant economic players in the local community. Obviously, for some sites such as Sellafield and Dounreay that will be for many decades to come. These duties are focused on the activities which BNFL and UKAEA currently carry out worth several million pounds a year. They are very valuable and valued by those communities.
In subsection(3C) the amendment also puts a duty on the NDA to require its site operators or contractors to have a procurement strategy for carrying out work at the site and to consider the effect of this on the local community before entering into the contract.
This addresses the underlying point of the amendment agreed by your Lordships to ensure that the NDA considers the contribution its employment and contractual arrangements can make to local communities. In practice it will be the site operators and managers who will meet those objectives in this regard. They will be making the decisions and the development of the supply chain which will impact on the economic life of the local community. I think the amendments make that clear.
Amendments Nos. 6 and 7 clarify that the provision is not to be a limitation on the other matters to which the Secretary of State may legitimately have regard when determining the amount of grant under Clause 25. The Secretary of State will need to consider in the round the NDA's plan for such activities and all other functions. In addition, as Clause 25 deals with the question of grants it is proposed to make the amendment in this clause rather than in Clause 13 which principally concerns the power of the NDA itself.
We are all agreed that the NDA must have a crucial responsibility to discharge its activities for the benefit of the nation—securing nuclear decommissioning and clean-up. We must not allow it to be deflected from that path. We also recognise that there are areas which are heavily dependent on the nuclear industry for employment. I mentioned earlier the west Cumbria and 1370 Caithness areas. As part of its corporate social responsibility, the NDA must take on the responsibilities of its predecessors.
Amendments Nos. 37 and 38 were agreed in response to Opposition proposals in the Commons to increase parliamentary oversight of the NDA's activities. I hope that they will be welcomed in this House. The key documents relating to the NDA's long and short-term plans for cleaning up and operating its designated sites will be made formally available to Parliament.
Amendments Nos. 39, 40 and 41 are three minor drafting changes which have arisen from a detailed check of the Bill. They are entirely inconsequential as regards effects and remove ambiguities.
Moved, That the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 4 to 7.—(Lord Whitty.)

§ Lord Jenkin of Roding
My Lords, I very much welcome these amendments. I moved the original amendments with all-party support. It is very good to see that those measures have been incorporated into the Bill.
I make two points. The first is that in dealing with this matter at earlier stages in this House, Ministers made much play with the problem of interfering with the activities of the regional development agencies and sought to argue that the NDA's activities must not cut across and contravene the general policies of the regional development agencies. Now that this duty has been inserted into the Bill, it will require a good deal of careful administration by the regional development agencies in the areas concerned and by the NDA to make sure that they work extremely closely together. I can understand the anxieties of the RDAs in knowing that someone else has the same sort of task. I welcome the fact that the NDA has been given this additional responsibility.
The second point is that the problems could be substantially reduced if it was recognised that the existing nuclear sites would be admirable places to build new nuclear power stations. We have made that point on a number of occasions. It is coming closer. As the noble Lord, Lord Tomlinson, indicated on Monday at Question Time, the Prime Minister's statement sounded like a change of policy and read as such. Many of us would have agreed with him that we hoped that it was a change of policy. However, we are not going to get that now. If that could happen, it would certainly meet the requirements of the people who are facing unemployment and disruption as a result of the winding down of the existing nuclear establishments.
My main point is about the RDAs and the NDA. That is going to be the key to making the provisions work.

§ Baroness Miller of Hendon
My Lords, we on these Benches welcome the amendments. The inclusion of the duty to ensure that the NDA will give encouragement and other support to activities benefiting the social and economic life of communities 1371 living near to a site, particularly those that will provide environmental benefits, is very reassuring. There is also the duty to produce these measures within the strategies which they create or which they require a contractor to provide.
As my colleagues in another place have said and as the Minister mentioned a few moments ago, given the moneys allocated to and deployed by the NDA, and given that it will be doing so much important work, it is important that Parliament keeps an eye on what is going on through the publication of the reports.
I also welcome the measure to ensure that these publications are provided directly to the Scottish Parliament considering the number of energy installations there are north of the Border.

§ Lord Jopling
My Lord, I believe that it was my amendment with which noble Lords agreed when we last debated these matters. Anyone who has worked for a long period in this building knows that, relatively speaking, amendments drawn by amateurs rarely attain the approval of the parliamentary draftsman in Whitehall. I am not remotely surprised, therefore, to see that the wording of the amendment has had to be changed.
Cumbria County Council first raised this issue. I am not sure whether it now has everything it wanted because it has not yet been in touch with me. But I want to add my welcome to that expressed by my colleagues.

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, I am grateful for the expressions of support for these changes in the Bill which address the basic problems outlined at earlier stages by noble Lords, some of whom have spoken again today.
The noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, asked about the regional development agencies. We were anxious that the original phrasing of the amendment might suggest that the more strategic role, one that might almost create a sub-regional RDA, was an ambiguity in the original drafting. The way it is now worded does not run that danger, but I agree wholeheartedly that it ensures close co-operation between the RDAs in those areas where there are substantial employment implications.
I do not think that I need to go into the question of future nuclear sites. As has been made clear, the Prime Minister is not enunciating new policy, and I agree with him. In any case, were we to take the nuclear option at some later stage, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority would not be the body to run those operations. Therefore it would not be appropriate to reflect that in this Bill, even if I were to agree with the basic point made by the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin.
In relation to the Scottish Parliament, I am not entirely sure what should appear in UK legislation, but in practice I am sure that the Scottish Parliament will need to be informed. As the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, pointed out, Scotland has a number of significant nuclear sites. 1372 I turn to the questions raised about west Cumbria. I understand that the redraft has been discussed with Cumbria County Council, whose representatives say that they are happy with it. I hope that everyone is now reasonably appreciative of the clauses now agreed.
On Question, Motion agreed to.