§ Mr. Cartwrightasked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will seek information from the Central Electricity Generating Board concerning the upper limit of insurance cover for damage to third parties arising from an accident to a nuclear reactor; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. GoodladIn accordance with section 16(1) of the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (the 1965 Act), as amended, the liability of the Central Electricity Generating Board to pay compensation in respect of nuclear damage resulting from an occurrence at a nuclear power station is limited to £20 million. Section 19(1) of the 1965 Act requires the board to make provision by insurance or by some other means for sufficient funds to be available at all times to ensure that any duly established claims are satisfied.
267WFurther, sections 18(1) and 18(1A) of the 1965 Act require that there shall be made available out of moneys provided by Parliament such sums to meet compensation claims as, when taken together with the sums mentioned above and approprate contributions from other states party to the 1963 Brussels convention supplementary to the 1960 Paris convention on third party liability in the field of nuclear energy, aggregate to 300 million SDR (about £230 million). In addition, section 16(3) of the 1965 Act provides that to the extent that claims cannot be satisfied out of sums made available for the purpose of section 18, they shall be satisfied to such extent and out of funds provided by such means as Parliament may determine.