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Nuclear Industry

We cannot have it both ways. Either the nuclear licensing regime in this country is the gold standard, as the hon. Gentleman suggests, in which case our inspectorate is not only up to speed but more up to speed in evaluating new nuclear types than anybody else, or it is not up to speed. It has not had experience recently because we have not built anything since Sizewell B, and therefore it cannot be the gold standard. Perhaps the gold standard is, in fact, the French licensing regime. If anybody gets a gold medal for successful development of nuclear power stations, it is the French. They have been brilliant: they built a batch of pressurised water reactors, and every few years, on the basis of the experience curve effect, they have improved them slightly and added another batch. There must be extraordinarily good engineers in Areva, EDF and so on. I do not know whether what the hon. Gentleman said is true. It is very nice to say that the British set the gold standard for everything. We all feel comfortable and happy in this place when we beat our breasts and say that, but it may not be true. I am not having a go at the inspectorate—I am just asking questions. The purpose of these debates is to ask questions of the Government. What has the NII been doing? Is it up to speed? Will it introduce new delays into the system because it is not up to speed? We do not want delays. Has it been evaluating new types of station? If so, I would think—I cannot imagine how it could be done otherwise—that the NII must have been working closely with the French, the Finns, the Americans and so on. I hope to hear that it has been doing that. I wanted to make only two points, and this is the second one. There is a need to avoid delays, to keep up to speed.