§ Mr. Wareingasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what recent reports have been made available to him on the subject of the disposal of nuclear waste; whether any changes in policy on the matter are envisaged; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. WaldegraveMy right hon. Friend regularly receives reports from the Radioactive Wastes Management Advisory Committee normally in June or July each year. In addition, he receives much advice from official and other sources.
Last November he also received the report of the independent review of disposal of radioactive waste in the north-east Atlantic, commissioned jointly with my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress and chaired by Professor Holliday. My right hon. Friend set out the Government's response to the report in a written reply on 13 December 1984, at columns 579–80, to my hon. Friend the Member for Staffordshire South-East (Mr. Lightbown). As recommended in the report, my Department is now undertaking a study of the best practicable environmental options for the disposal of different types of low and intermediate level radioactive wastes. The results will be taken fully into account in the further development of policy.