§ Mr. Martyn JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy (1) whether, in setting the nuclear tax level at 10 per cent., he took into account the cost of reprocessing, decommissioning of plant and the disposal of waste;
(2) on what basis the nuclear tax of 10 per cent. is expected to drop to 3 per cent. by the year 2000;
(3) what difference in the price of generation between nuclear power and fossil fuel the nuclear tax of 10 per cent. represents;
(4) whether the nuclear tax will take effect as soon as National Power begins operation as a private company.
§ Mr. Michael SpicerThe fossil fuel levy is not a nuclear tax but an allocation of existing nuclear costs. It will be levied on all sales of fossil-generated power by licensed suppliers and set at a level to recover any difference in price between the costs of meeting the non-fossil obligation and what would have been the cost of purchasing that electricity if it had been generated by fossil-fuel generating stations. Negotiations on contracts for generating capacity will not be completed until later this year. It is too early to say what the prices in these contracts will be or the implications for the level of the levy, either in 1990 or later in the decade.
The contracts for nuclear generating capacity will take into account the anticipated costs of reprocessing, decommissioning of plant and the disposal of waste.
The timing of the introduction of the levy will be dealt with in regulations made by the Secretary of State under clause 31 of the Electricity Bill.
588W
§ Mr. Grist[holding answer 11 April 1989]: Data from the National Health Service central registers (which relate to movements of persons on National Health Service doctors' lists) give an indication of migration into and out of Welsh counties. These are shown in the following table. Information is not available at district authority level.