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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what Freedom of Information requests (a) his Department and (b) the Department for Energy and Climate Change received in the last 12 months in respect of requests for documents submitted to the European Commission in support of the UK case of State Aid Clearance for plans to support radioactive waste and decommissioning proposals for new nuclear power stations; what response his Department provided to those requests; and what the reasons were for each such response.

The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has not received any requests for documents submitted to the European Commission for State aid clearance with regard to plans to support radioactive waste and decommissioning proposals for new nuclear power stations.

The former Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) received one such request in the last 12 months. The request asked for “the main document setting out the United Kingdom justification for state aid clearance, along with a full list of the titles of all support documents, submitted to the European Commission, in respect of the European Commission consideration of the pricing methodology for waste transfer contracts to be concluded between the UK Government and operators of new nuclear power plants and its compatibility with EU state aid rules, on which the Commission reported its conclusions on 9 October 2015”.

In its response DECC confirmed that it did hold the information requested but was withholding it as the information fell within the scope of the exception set out in regulation 12(5)(a) of the Environmental Information Regulations and that the public interest lay in withholding the information.