Liabilities Management Authority (Hansard, 17 December 2001)

§ Mr. Stunell
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when(a) Thorp and (b) the Sellafield MOX plant will be transferred to the Liabilities Management Authority; and if she will make a statement. [22115]

§ Mr. Wilson
It is important that Sellafield continues to be managed as a single, unified site. Therefore Thorp and the Sellafield MOX plant will be transferred to the Liabilities Management Authority (LMA) following its establishment. The necessary legislation will be brought forward in due course.

§ Mr. Stunell
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what financial contribution BNFL will make towards the decommissioning of(a) Thorp and (b) the Sellafield MOX plant; and if she will make a statement. [22114]

§ Mr. Wilson
As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry indicated in her statement to the House on 28 November, the Government intend that a Liabilities Management Authority (LMA) will take on responsibility for the UK's historic public sector civil nuclear liabilities and the associated assets including funds earmarked by BNFL for decommissioning and clean-up.
It is important that Sellafield continues to be managed as a unified site. Therefore once the LMA is established, ownership of both Thorp and the Sellafield MOX plant will transfer from BNFL to the LMA. The expectation is that the commercial revenues from these plants will be sufficient to fund their decommissioning costs.