§ Mr. Dempseyasked the Secretary of State for Energy what regulations it is proposed to make under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 to implement the recent decisions of the steering committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's nuclear energy agency, made with the agreement of the United Kingdom Government, which relate to the exclusion of certain nuclear matter from the scope of the Paris 164W convention on third party liability in the field of nuclear energy.
§ Mr. BennA copy of the draft text of the Nuclear Installations (Excepted Matter) Regulations 1978 which the Secretary of State for Scotland and I have in mind to make for this purpose has been placed in the Library, together with a memorandum explaining the nature of the changes involved. Briefly the regulations would make some minor alterations to the small quantities of nuclear matter which are already excepted from the Act. They would also except from the Act uranium containing less than 1 per cent. of the fissile isotope and less than specified very low levels of radioactive contamination; this material is not significantly different in health and safety terms from natural uranium, which is already excepted from the Act.