Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of a potential link between nuclear power and the prevalence of cancer; and what estimate he has made of proportion of the NHS budget spent on treating patients suffering from cancer caused by nuclear power generation.

No such estimate has been made.

There has been extensive research into the possible links between nuclear power and cancer over a number of years. In particular, the independent expert Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment has published a number of major reports addressing exposure to man-made radiation from major nuclear installation operations and possible links with childhood cancers - www.comare.org.uk . Similarly, the Small Area Health Statistics Unit, based at Imperial College London and part of the MRC-PHE Centre for Environmental and Health, has published reports examining suggested links between local incidence of cancers and radioactive discharges from some nuclear installations.

All of these reports have concluded that public exposures to radiation as a result of nuclear operations is extremely unlikely to have caused discernible health consequences.

All radioactive discharges in the United Kingdom are regulated and monitored by the UK's environmental regulators.