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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the cost to the Office for Nuclear Regulation of the development of a manual system for nuclear safeguards calculations and reporting.

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 Department will allocate to the ONR the funding necessary to establish a UK State System of Accounting for and Control of Nuclear Material (SSAC).