Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the marine contingency planning the UK has in place for responding to a maritime accident involving the escape of radioactive materials to marine (a) aquatic and (b) atmospheric environments relating to (i) environmental protection and (ii) public health; and if he will make a statement.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) response planning designed to manage incidents involving dangerous cargo, including nuclear materials, is contained in the ‘The National Contingency Plan - A Strategic Overview for Responses to Marine Pollution from Shipping and Offshore Installations (the NCP)’ and other operational response procedures. The NCP is published on GOV.UK.

Response to vessel incident and pollution incidents within the maritime environment is for the most part initiated by Her Majesty’s Coastguard (HMCG), with involvement from MCA Counter Pollution and Salvage (MCA CPS) and the Secretary of State’s Representative (SOSREP). The timing, nature and extent of any subsequent response will depend on the nature, scope and scale of the incident and the risks to the public and the environment. This is equally applicable to incidents involving nuclear materials, where broad alerting and response protocols exist across the appropriate UK agencies and organisations.

In the case of incidents involving vessels, technical support will be sought from ship’s owners, classification society, naval architects, insurers and salvors. For incidents involving nuclear materials further specialist support would be required. This will comprise of a range of response services using the resources of: International Nuclear Services, the Office of Nuclear Regulation, the Environmental Hazards and Emergencies Department (EHED), the Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards (CRCE) (including the Radiation Team element of CRCE), the Met Office and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary. Other industry specialists are likely to be engaged by the salvors for vessel firefighting, cargo/source containment, mitigation, stabilisation, and recovery.

Public Health England (PHE) have delegated responsibility to lead on UK-wide public health impacts and response resulting from the release of nuclear materials. PHE will be informed by potential and/or actual release information as well as forecast drift and exposure modelling developed by the Met Office, this last supported by EHED and CRCE. Again, location of the incident, its nature, actual and potential extent, risk to the public and environment will be considered and will inform the actual response activated. In response, PHE will engage with Local Government Resilience Fora and their counterparts within the Devolved Administrations to co-ordinate a coherent national response.

Her Majesty’s Coastguard will maintain communication with all shipping approaching or in the vicinity of any incident, informing them of any danger and advise on exclusion areas and potential re-routing. They will similarly inform any offshore installation (oil & gas or offshore renewable operation), should they be in the modelled drift or potential fall-out impact area. They will also inform the UK Hydrographic Office, who will issue a temporary and/or longer term Notice to Mariners.