§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the cost of the Sizewell B Inquiry was. [48028]
§ Mr. WilsonThe costs of the public inquiry completed in 1985 and attributed to the then Department of Energy, or recoverable from the Central Electricity Generating Board, totalled some £2.5 million. However the full costs of the inquiry would be several times that amount and would include the costs of CEGB applying for consent for the power station and the costs of other parties that participated in the inquiry. As the information is not held centrally within my Department, and the length of time since the inquiry, an estimate of the full costs cannot now be obtained without disproportionate costs.