§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the legal processes covering compensation for multiple or sequentially linked accidents on the same nuclear site.
§ Mr. Charles WardleUnder United Kingdom law, where third party damage or injury is caused as a result of a single nuclear occurrence at a site, compensation is payable by the site operator up to his insurance limit of £140 million. Further compensation up to an overall limit of approximately £280 million for each occurrence is payable out of money provided by Parliament. This will also cover a case where the £140 million insurance may be exhausted because there has been a previous occurrence at the same site within the same insurance cover period.
However, following any occurrence resulting in claims on the operator's insurance, the Minister, if he thinks it proper to do so, may direct the operator to open a new cover period for that site, so that a further £140 million will be available for any subsequent incident. If claims exceed £280 million, additional compensation may be provided by Parliament to the extent that it shall determine.
A succession of occurrences at one site, which is attributable to a particular event or to the carrying out of a particular operation, is regarded as a single occurrence for the payment of compensation. The whole of a continuing occurrence is similarly regarded as a single occurrence.