§ Mr. ChaytorTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many safeguards visits, involving how many person hours, were made respectively by safeguards inspectors from(a) Euratom and (b) the International Atomic Energy Agency to plants operated by (i) British Nuclear Fuels plc and (ii) the UK Atomic Energy Authority in 1997. [28497]
§ Mrs. RocheI refer my hon. Friend to my reply of 19 December 1997,Official Report, column 342.
Reports on the operation of Euratom safeguards, including information on typical Euratom safeguards inspection effort both by country and by type of installation, are published periodically by the European Commission. The most recent information available is for 1996. This information is available in the paper "Euratom Safeguards—An update on Present Developments", which has been placed in the library of the House.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) do not routinely publish similar figures, but the information they have provided to us, which is subject to validation within the IAEA, shows that the inspection effort in the United Kingdom in 1997 fell within the range indicated in my previous answer. The facilities inspected included parts of BNFL's Sellafield site, but at present no UKAEA facilities are designated for inspection by the IAEA.