Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, who was involved in designing the Sellafield Workforce Reform initiative.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has a responsibility to UK tax payers to ensure that Sellafield Ltd has maximum opportunity for improved performance: accelerating hazard reduction and delivering value for money. A new model, part of a suite of changes designed to increase efficiency in the business, is being put in place to help achieve that. The Sellafield Change Programme is driven by Sellafield Ltd and is managed by its CEO and Executive. From April this year, Sellafield Ltd will report to the NDA Board on progress.
Full details of the change programme are available at http://www.nda.gov.uk/contracts-and-competition/sellafield-model-change-programme/
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many jobs are expected to be created in (a) the supply chain and (b) other areas as an indirect result of (i) new nuclear builds in Moorside and (ii) Solway Firth Tidal Lagoon project, West Cumbria.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Nugen is proposing to build three AP1000 reactors at Moorside in Cumbria. Nugen have indicated that Moorside would bring at least £10 billion of investment into the UK with estimated peak on-site employment of up to 6,000 during construction. During operation the reactors could sustain about 1,000 permanent jobs, with many more created through local and regional supply chains including in construction, manufacturing and engineering, although estimated numbers are not yet available.
Regarding the Solway Firth Tidal Lagoon, the proposed project is in the early stages of development. It is too early to say how many jobs could be created.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment her Department has made of the number of jobs that will be created by the construction phase of (a) the new nuclear build at Moorside and (b) Solway Firth Tidal Lagoon project in West Cumbria.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Nugen is proposing to build three AP1000 reactors at Moorside in Cumbria. Nugen have indicated that Moorside would bring at least £10 billion of investment into the UK with estimated peak on-site employment of up to 6,000 during construction.
Regarding the Solway Firth Tidal Lagoon, the proposed project is in the early stages of development. It is too early to say how many jobs could be created.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment her Department has made of the number of jobs that will be created by the running and maintaining of (a) new nuclear build at Moorside and (b) Solway Firth Tidal Lagoon project in West Cumbria.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Nugen is proposing to build three AP1000 reactors at Moorside in Cumbria. Nugen have indicated that Moorside would bring at least £10 billion of investment into the UK with estimated peak on-site employment of up to 6,000 during construction.
Regarding the Solway Firth Tidal Lagoon, the proposed project is in the early stages of development. It is too early to say how many jobs could be created.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what plans the Government has to support research and development in the use of thorium reactor technology in (a) the UK, (b) the EU and (c) worldwide.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK has been supporting research and development into the use of thorium nuclear fuels since such fuels were used in the Dragon reactor at Winfrith in the 1960s and 1970s.
Examples of current activity on thorium and related technologies include academic research into thorium fuelled reactor systems and fuel cycle processes through Research Council grants to UK universities; collaboration on thorium fuels, via the UK Research Councils’ Energy Programme, with national nuclear energy programmes of other countries on safety, performance and non-proliferation; experimental development of thorium fuels through the UK’s National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) and private sector organisations, as part of international consortia, and thorium fuel modelling and fuel cycle scenario analysis by the NNL. These activities cover UK, EU and worldwide initiatives and receive either financial or strategic support from the Government. The Government plans to continue a similar approach to support future research and development in the use of thorium as a nuclear reactor fuel.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many meetings her Department has had with representatives of Tidal Power Ltd on the proposed Solway Firth Tidal Lagoon project.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is currently in a bilateral negotiation with Tidal Lagoon Power Ltd regarding a possible Contract for Difference for their proposed project in Swansea Bay and there have been numerous meetings with the developer to discuss this project.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate she has made of the amount of energy that would be generated in West Cumbria as a result of the (a) Moorside Nuclear development and (b) Solway Firth Tidal Gateway project; and what proportion of UK energy would be generated by those projects.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Nugen's proposal for Moorside is for three Toshiba Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, which together have a stated generation capacity of 3.6GW. This is equivalent to around 27 TWh per year once the station is fully operational. This is estimated to be equivalent to around 7% of the UK’s electricity generation needs in 2030.
No assessment of the amount of generation which could be produced by a potential Solway Firth Tidal Gateway project has been made by my Department as we have not received any detailed proposal for such a project.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the Government target is for the procurement of goods and services from the local Sellafield Ltd supply chain; how this target is monitored and enforced; and whether there are sanctions that would apply were this target not to be met.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Sellafield is considered a ‘Contracting Authority’ under the EU Procurement Directives and as such they have to apply the Public Procurement Regulations in all their procurements, ensuring fair, equitable and transparent treatment for all suppliers whether local or not. The NDA have required Sellafield to consider SMEs, socio economic and the UK Growth agenda within their procurement strategies, which in turn should support smaller local suppliers.
The SME target for the NDA Estate as a whole has been agreed with Government as 31% by 2020 and it is expected that each Site Licence Company (SLC), including Sellafield contribute to that target. The target is made up of both direct (SLC spend) and indirect (major supplier) spend. The target is broken up over the next financial years as follows:
15/16 21.5 – 23%
16/17 23.5 – 25%
17/18 25.5 – 29%
18/19 29.0 – 31%
The NDA monitors the target with Sellafield reporting their direct spend with SMEs and NDA collect the data centrally from the major suppliers within the Estate. In turn, SME target is monitored and supported centrally by a range of systems including meetings with Lord Bourne, the DECC SME Minister, and various Cabinet Office meetings where NDA is an active participant. The NDA Executive and its Board are also updated regularly on performance against the SME target as well as wider discussions across the Estate. The NDA 2016-2019 Business Plan (currently out for consultation, www.nda.gov.uk) details the SME targets for each SLC for 2016, with the expectation that this support continues during the life of the Plan.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assistance the Government has made available to local supply chain companies not able to participate in the Sellafield Ltd goods and services procurement process.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local businesses are able to participate in the Sellafield Ltd goods and services procurement process. As well as engaging directly with the local supply chain, NDA and Sellafield Ltd enable the development of working relationships and commercial arrangements between local businesses and Tier 2 suppliers.
In 2014/15 of Sellafield’s total direct spend with SME’s, one-third was with Cumbrian-based suppliers. Of the remaining two-thirds, half was with one UK supplier, with the remaining half spread across SME’s across the UK. The NDA has a well-established SME engagement programme available at (http://www.nda.gov.uk/contracts-and-competition/) which Sellafield support. This includes regional and National SME steering groups – with a specific Cumbrian group being one of the regions, various guides and publications, promoting SME friendly procurements, a SME mentoring scheme and annual national NDA estate supply chain event with particular focus on SMEs. Companies local to Sellafield are engaged in these activities.
Furthermore, in recent years business support has been provided to West Cumbrian businesses through schemes delivered by Britain’s Energy Coast and financed from a combination of NDA & Sellafield Ltd socio-economic budgets. This has amounted to approximately £500K per annum supporting local schemes such as the Energy Opportunities Supply Chain Project, Linkstart, and Ways Into Successful Enterprise. NDA provided match funding of £1m to the BEC delivered Regional Growth Fund 2 for West Cumbria, and both Sellafield Ltd and NDA have previously financially supported the Innovus scheme which aims to support businesses in the development of new products through the various Technology Readiness Levels.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what proportion of goods and services has been procured from (a) companies in the local supply chain and (b) small and medium-sized enterprises by Sellafield Ltd in each of the last six years.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The department does not hold this information as it is the responsibility of the NDA.