§ Mr. McGradyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what restrictions are placed on the Health and Safety Executive in respect of providing information to local authorities on accidents at THORP without the consent of British Nuclear Fuels plc. [9146]
§ Sir Paul BeresfordThe Health and Safety Executive may release such information to an officer of a local authority authorised to receive it, where HSE has acquired the information under statutory requirements. However, HSE would normally make the information available only if there was a health and safety purpose in doing so.
Section 28 of the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974 contains restrictions on the release of information obtained under statutory requirements or in the exercise of inspectors' powers. Associations of local authorities, unlike individual local authorities, do not fall within the exemptions from these restrictions.
§ Mr. McGradyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment he made of the health and safety consequences of incidents(a) during the construction of THORP at Sellafield and (b) since it commenced operational activity. [91451
§ Sir Paul BeresfordConditions attached to the Sellafield nuclear site licence require BNFL to have arrangements in place to investigate and report incidents at THORP to HSE's nuclear installations inspectorate. These apply throughout the lifetime of the plant, including the construction stage. Additional arrangements exist to comply with other regulations, such as the Reporting of 605W Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1985 relating to non-nuclear incident reporting.
The HSE routinely monitors BNFL's arrangements including the conduct of its investigations, and carries out separate investigations where appropriate, which take into account the health and safety consequences of the particular incident. Significant incidents are reported in the HSE's quarterly statements of nuclear incidents.