§ Mr. Dalyellasked the Secretary of State for Energy, pursuant to his reply, 26 January 1987, Official Report, column 58, if he will publish in the Official Report a list of (a) all country-to-country agreements, with their command numbers where relevant, containing clauses requiring the security classification of information on uranium and plutonium and (b) all commercial contracts concerning civil nuclear power between the Central Electricity Generating Board, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and British Nuclear Fuels plc and foreign partners that contain confidential clauses; and in each case if he will give the date of the entering into force of the agreement or contract and the date of expiry.
§ Mr. GoodladThe Euratom treaty of 22 January 1972, Cmnd. 5179, has provisions relating to the protection of information which is subject to a security system in a member state. The UK/Euratom/IAEA safeguards agreement of March 1977, Cmnd. 6730, contains provisions restricting the use of information exchanged under it.
Specific provisions relating to the classification of information on nuclear materials are contained in the agreement between the Governments of the United Kingdom, Federal Republic of Germany and the Netherlands on collaboration on the development and exploitation of the gas centrifuge process for producing enriched uranium, dated 4 March 1970, Cmnd. 4315.
In addition, the United Kingdom is party to a large number of other international agreements in the nuclear field, such as bilateral nuclear co-operation agreements, safeguards agreements and Exchanges of Notes, many of which contain provisions restricting the use of information exchanged under them. To the extent that information exchanged under such agreements is subject to a security classification in the country of origin it is accorded similar protection in the United Kingdom.
43WAs I said in my reply of 29 January, at column 327, it is common practice not to disclose commercially confidential information arising under contractual arrangements without the agreement of the commercial partners. This is the case irrespective of whether there are specific confidentiality clauses in the contract. I am advised that BNFL has over one hundred current contracts with foreign partners relating to the nuclear fuel cycle which contain specific confidentiality clauses. The CEGB and the UKAEA each have a number of such contracts themselves. The disclosure of information contained in or arising under these contracts is a matter for the contracting parties.