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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assurances his Department has received from the International Atomic Energy Agency that a manual system for nuclear safeguards calculations and reporting would be compatible with the terms of the UK’s Voluntary Offer Agreement.

The development of the Safeguards Information Management and Reporting IT System (SIMRS) is on track for testing and operations by the end of 2018. SIMRS will enable the ONR to manage and process the electronic Nuclear Materials Accountancy reports from its dutyholders and submit these, along with other relevant safeguards reports to the IAEA to enable the UK to meet its international obligations, once Euratom safeguards no longer provide this function in the UK. As a contingency measure in the unlikely event that SIMRS is not ready by 29 March 2019, these reports can be manually downloaded by ONR for submission to the IAEA.

The Voluntary Offer Agreement between the UK and IAEA set out the reporting requirements for the UK in terms of the information that must be provided, the format in which it must be provided and the timescales for its submission to the Agency. This contingency for SIMRS has been developed to deliver all the information required in the timeframes and format agreed as part of the VOA. The VOA does not specify the manner in which such reports must be processed by the UK State System of Accounting for and Control of Nuclear Material (SSAC).