§ Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the report published on 23 November by the European Parliament's Scientific and Technological Options Assessment Programme on possible toxic effects from the nuclear reprocessing plants at Sellafield and Cap de la Hague, France. [19874]
§ Mr. WilsonNone. The subject matter of this report—which was prepared by an organisation called WISE-Paris—appears to relate to assessment of the possible environmental impacts of reprocessing. In the UK such matters fall to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs to whom I understand my hon. Friend has addressed a similar question.
I am aware, however, that the objectivity and scientific validity of the study produced by WISE-Paris have been called into question by Members of the European Parliament and that, in view of this, the European Parliament body that commissioned the report in response to a request from a separate committee formally sought from three experts an independent evaluation of the report.
The Chairman of the Scientific and Technological Options Assessment Panel (STOA) makes clear in a letter written as a cover to the study on its publication that publication of the document
does not imply adoption of its contents and these do not necessarily reflect the views of members of the STOA Panel or the European Parliament".The letter goes on to state
the STOA Panel expresses regret that WISE-Paris saw fit to break the confidentiality clause in its contract by making public parts of the study prior to its publication. This behaviour of WISE-Paris is not in line with the long-standing tradition of STOA, which has always endeavoured to associate its work with the highest scientific and ethical standards".As the letter explains, at its meeting on 23 October the STOA Panel took note of the WISE-Paris study and decided to publish it
as a first contribution to the scientific debate".STOA also decided to make public the assessments of the WISE-Paris work that STOA obtained from the independent experts.
667W