Nuclear Management Partners

Lord Hoyle Excerpts

Thursday 20th March 2014 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Hoyle]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, rather than the Government, took the decision regarding the extension of the contracts of Nuclear Management Partners.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Baroness Verma) (Con)]

My Lords, the decision on contract extension was for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, in line with its duties and responsibilities under the Energy Act 2004. Ministers were consulted and endorsed the decision before it was announced. Rolling the contract forward represents the best way forward at this time, giving the opportunity for NMP to build on the progress made to date, to address weaker areas of performance and to make further real progress in the next five years.

[Lord Hoyle (Lab)]

The decision to extend the contract of Nuclear Management Partners was taken despite its poor performance, undue delays and the fact that the costs are spiralling out of control—it will cost £70 billion to decontaminate six square kilometres. It is well over budget, by £2 billion. When the original decision was taken to give NMP the contract, it was taken by Ministers, so why did Ministers dodge the issue this time?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, I reassure the noble Lord that we did not dodge the decision. We have taken advice through the work done by the NDA, and my officials were involved in the review throughout the process. The decision made by the NDA was to see this contract go for a further five years to build on the work that has already been done. I remind noble Lords that 90% targets have been reached by NMP in the past five years. It is an incredibly difficult site, as the noble Lord is aware. Of course, there are extremely difficult challenges facing it, and a lot of it has been due to long-term neglect.