Nuclear Power (Hansard, 26 March 2003)

§ Mr. Meacher

We shall be advertising in the press from today to seek applications from people willing to serve on the new Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM), which will be responsible for delivering recommendations to UK Government and the devolved administrations on the best means of managing the UK's radioactive wastes over the longer term under the "Managing Radioactive Waste Safely" programme. CoRWM's terms of reference have been finalised and are as follows.

Terms of Reference for the Members of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM)

Objectives

1. CoRWM is appointed jointly by Ministers of the UK Government and devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, to oversee a review of options for managing solid radioactive waste in the UK and to recommend the option, or combination of options, that can provide a long-term solution, providing protection for people and the environment. This follows the announcement by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to the UK Parliament, and by devolved administrations, on 29 July 2002.

2. CoRWM must ensure that this review of options is carried out in an open, transparent and inclusive manner. The process of review must engage members of the UK public, and provide them with the opportunity to express their views. Other key stakeholder groups with interests in radioactive waste management, must also be provided with opportunity to participate. The 229W objective of CoRWM's programme is to arrive at recommendations which can inspire public confidence and are practicable in securing the long-term safety of the UK's radioactive wastes. It must therefore listen to what people say during the course of its work, and address the concerns that they raise.

3. CoRWM will have a corporate responsibility to deliver its recommendations to sponsoring Ministers in accordance with agreed work plans. It must aim to supply recommendations to them no later than the end of 2005, and sooner if possible. It will be for Ministers, with appropriate reference to their respective Parliaments and Assemblies to decide future policy for the long-term management of the UK's solid radioactive waste and to make arrangements for its implementation.

Committee characteristics

4. Size of the Committee. CoRWM will consist of a Chair, and 12 Members which w Al include a Deputy Chair.

5. Composition of the Committee. CoRWM will include people with a range of expertise: people with a perspective of environmental, health, social or ethical issues, as well as people with technical experience and expertise in radioactive waste matters. Ministers hope to find these skills and perspectives: radioactive waste, nuclear materials and how they can be managed; regulation of UK processes that give rise to radioactive waste; public engagement, consensus building and resolving conflict on contentious issues; applying ethical principles to scientific and technical decision-making; national and international environmental law; scientific and technical issues such as earth science, materials and their properties, and civil engineering; radiation protection principles and their implementation; radionuclides and how they affect the environment; environmental, health and safety issues and how they interact and conflict.

6. All members will need to be effective team workers, with good analytical skills and good judgment besides a strong interest in the process of decision-making on difficult issues. A number of them will need experience of managing complex projects, drawing on public and stakeholder group involvement and discussion, excellent drafting and communication skills, or business experience and knowledge of economics.

7. The Chair, in addition, will be capable of successfully and objectively leading committee-based projects, grasping complex technical issues, managing a diverse organisation effectively and delivering substantial results, presenting progress and outcomes in public, a person with appropriate stature and credibility.

8. Access to other sources of expertise. CoRWM itself will have to decide how best to secure access to other appropriate sources of expert input during the course of its work. Within this, it will have the option of setting up expert sub-groups containing both Members of CoRWM itself and other appropriate co-opted persons. A member of CoRWM will chair any sub-group of this nature and ensure its effective operation, as well as provide a clear line of responsibility and accountability 230W to the main Committee, and hence to Ministers. This approach will enable them to draw on a broad range of expertise in the UK and elsewhere.

9. The number of such sub-groups will be kept to the minimum necessary. Their role will be that of providing advice for the main Committee to consider and assess as it sees fit, and managing any activity which CoRWM delegates to them. It will be for the main Committee to assess and decide upon the advice it receives from such sub-groups. CoRWM may also utilise other appropriate means of securing expert input, such as sponsored meetings and seminars. The Chair will ensure that subgroup work and all other activities are closely integrated with the Committee and with one another.

10. Length of appointment. Initial appointments will be for three years. Sponsoring Ministers retain the right to terminate appointments at any time in light of individual members' performance appraisal, changes in CoRWM's work requirements, or completion of the work required of CoRWM.

Programme of work

11. CoRWM's objective is to recommend to Ministers the best option, or combination of options for managing the UK's solid radioactive waste that can provide a long-term solution, providing protection for people and the environment. The UK's waste inventory contains, or will contain, a wide range of high and low activity, short and long lived wastes. CoRWM's priority task is to recommend what should be done with the wastes for which no long-term management strategy currently exists—that is, high and intermediate level waste now in storage or likely to arise over the next century or two, and some low level waste unsuitable for disposal at Drigg. However, for some of these wastes, the Nirex "Letter of Comfort" system has provided a framework which has enabled helpful progress to be made on conditioning and packaging. (Ministers have other sources of advice on other wastes for which a long term management strategy already exists but where there may be long or shorter term issues needing attention. CoRWM may wish to offer advice on these issues but this should not divert it from its priority task set out above.)

12. CoRWM will take a strategic approach to the review and assessment of options for the long term management of radioactive waste. It will start by gathering information and familiarising itself with the issues, including meetings and presentations as appropriate. The outline framework within which CoRWM is then expected to complete its work is: (i) setting the framework for the review through identification, on the basis of sounding public and stakeholder views, of: the inventory of materials to be covered (this will include not only the materials currently classified as waste liable to arise over the next century or so but also materials which may have to be managed as waste during that period, such as some plutonium and uranium as well as certain quantities of spent nuclear fuel); the options for the long-term management of the various waste materials; and the criteria against which each of the options being carried forward to the main assessment are to be assessed. (These criteria are likely to be wide-ranging, reflecting among other things, the potential risks involved, concerns been expressed by the public and stakeholders, and practicability of implementing each option.) 231W CoRWM should take the earliest possible opportunity to identify those options which have no realistic prospect of being implemented within the reasonably foreseeable future, so that the main effort during the assessment stage can be focused on those which are practicable. (ii) implementation of the review. This will involve evaluation of each of the remaining options, for each of the wastes concerned, against the agreed set of criteria. The assessment will take account of existing information and any new research that CoRWM judges necessary. An initial assessment report will be produced by CoRWM and subjected to appropriate soundings of public and stakeholder group views. A final version will then be produced taking due account of the views expressed. (iii) formulation of recommendations. The final assessment report will be used to formulate Committee recommendations to its sponsoring Ministers. We also anticipate that, during the course of its work, CoRWM will have acquired views relevant to subsequent stages of the policy programme. For example, the assessment of options will not consider potential radioactive waste sites; but it will raise sitting issues—including whether local communities should have a veto or be encouraged to volunteer, and whether they should be offered incentives. CoRWM will need to consider these issues, and may want to make recommendations to Ministers on them.

Formulation and agreement of work programme

13. CoRWM will prepare a detailed draft work programme, within this outline framework, that will enable it to deliver its recommendation to Ministers within the required timescales. The programme will include any proposed sub-groups or other activities or events that are likely to involve significant time and effort by the Committee. CoRWM will send this draft work programme to its sponsoring Ministers for discussion and agreement at an appropriate early stage of its work. Such discussion may lead to appropriate adjustment and refinement. In considering this programme, CoRWM and sponsoring departments and Ministers will be able to take account of the parallel work with Government in this area.

14. In familiarising itself with the relevant background and issues, CoRWM will make itself aware of the UK Radioactive Waste Inventory and the nature of current and expected future UK holdings of plutonium, uranium and spent nuclear fuel. It will take account of existing technical assessments and research into radioactive waste management, and reports arising out of the Defra and devolved administrations public consultation on radioactive waste. It will work closely with Nirex and other organisations with relevant experience and expertise. CoRWM is also recommended to meet and take presentations from appropriate key-player organisations and to visit a selection of key UK and, possibly, other European nuclear sites. It will also take a account of other relevant policy developments, including the UK energy review. In particular, it is recognised that CoRWM will need to engage with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and it's predecessor, the Liabilities Management Unit, given that the former's output will directly impinge on the long-term responsibilities of the NDA.

15. CoRWM is recommended to aim to complete its first phase (familiarisation work and proposals for the waste inventory, the waste management options, and the criteria to be used in their assessment) after about a year from the date of its appointment. It is thereafter 232W recommended to aim for completion and reporting of the assessment work itself (the second phase) after about a further year. Provision of recommendations to sponsoring Ministers would follow as soon as possible after that.

16. CoRWM should indicate the timing proposed for its work in the draft work programme sent for discussion with sponsoring Ministers. The intent is that CoRWM's recommendations should be delivered around the end of 2005. If the Chair anticipates that CoRWM will be late in completing any current phase or overall delivery of its work programme, he or she should inform the sponsoring Ministers as soon as possible, together with an indication of whether and how the committee can catch up during any subsequent phases of its programme. CoRWM will agree with Ministers how to proceed so as to be able to carry its programme forward.

Public engagement

17. CoRWM must inspire public confidence in the way in which it works, in order to secure such confidence in its eventual recommendations. Hence, its work should be characterised by: a transparency policy, an active programme af public and relevant stake holder group debate, using innovative appropriate techniques to ensure public involvement and support; encouraging people to ask questions or make their views known, listening to their concerns, ensuring that they are addressed and that people get a response; public meetings and other consultative processes, well advertised in advance and involving a variety of interested stakeholders including members of the public; holding a significant number of its own meetings in public; clear communications including the use of plain English; making information accessible to as many people as possible, including use of the internet, as well as ways of reaching people who do not use the internet; and providing opportunities for people to challenge information, for example by giving them access to alternative sources of information and points of view.

Chair

18. The Chair will be responsible for supervising the work of CoRWM and ensuring that its objectives are achieved. He or she will be the main point of contact with the public and the media, in presenting progress and answering questions. The Chair will meet Ministers on appointment, and then six-monthly to report progress. Notes of these meetings will be published. The Chair will provide an annual written report to Ministers, by 1 December, which he/she may be required to present to Parliament or Assembly representatives as appropriate. The report will set out, among other things, CoRWM's work programme, progress made, and costs incurred. Ministers will also appoint a Deputy Chair who can assist the Chair as the latter sees fit.

Members

19. Members will work, under the Chair's supervision, to the programme agreed with sponsoring Ministers so as to ensure its satisfactory delivery. Members will have a collective responsibility to ensure achievement of CoRWM's overall mission. It is not envisaged that Committee Members themselves will be responsible for day-to-day work activities but rather in 233W deciding what these should be, overseeing their delivery, and reviewing and being responsible for the reports and other output delivered under CoRWM's name. Individual Members may be appointed by the Chair to undertake specific, active roles, for example chairing sub-groups or in representing CoRWM in meetings with the public, organisations who are contributing to the work, or the media. All Members will be subject to individual performance appraisal as laid down by the Cabinet Office guide (see next paragraph).

Standards

20. CoRWM is set up by, and answerable to Ministers and is funded by the taxpayer. It must therefore comply with the Cabinet Office guide "Non-Departmental Public Bodies—a Guide for Departments".

21. These and other relevant procedural requirements, including working to standards laid down by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments, are set out in the "Code of practice for members of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management" to which Members will agree prior to appointment.

Resources

22. Sponsoring Ministers will provide CoRWM with resources—both staff and financial—to enable it to carry out its agreed programme of work. These will include a secretariat which will help CoRWM carry out its programme including, at the outset, providing reading material and arranging for further briefings and visits. The Chair and Members will have a collective responsibility for delivering the work programme within the agreed budget, although the Chair may request sponsoring Ministers for adjustment to this budget should this be considered necessary.

Payments

23. The Chair and Members will be paid for their work for CoRWM. They will also be fully reimbursed for all reasonable travel and subsistence costs incurred during the course of their work.

These terms of reference and other relevant information concerning CoRWM will be included in information packs for prospective applicants. Copies of this material will also be published on the Defra website and placed in the Library of the House.

Under its terms of reference, CoRWM will be required to engage the public and stakeholder groups widely in the formulation of its recommendations. The Committee will itself decide how best to do this. However, to provide some initial ideas for CoRWM to consider, a workshop involving about 50 persons with relevant expertise of public and stakeholder engagement processes was held in Manchester on 10–11 March 2003. University College London were appointed on a single tender basis to run the workshop. Their report of the workshop and its outcome will be published.