Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 3 August 2016 to Question 42312 and with reference to the written statement HCWS137 of 14 September 2017, HCWS445 of 2 February 2018, and HCWS617 of 16 April 2018, what his Department’s current estimate is of the total additional cost of creating a domestic nuclear safeguards regime to replace the regime currently provided through membership of EURATOM.

The total estimated cost to establish a domestic nuclear safeguards regime is up to £10 million, as explained in the explanatory notes to the Nuclear Safeguards Bill republished on 24th January 2018. This estimate includes any expenditure made from cash advances received from the Contingencies Fund. The Department’s applications to the Contingencies Fund were notified to Parliament on 2 February 2018 and 16 April 2018.