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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has had recent discussions with counterparts in the Governments of (a) Australia, (b) Kazakhstan, (c) Canada, (d) the US, (e) Japan and (f) South Korea to progress new nuclear safeguards cooperation agreements ahead of the UK's departure from the Euratom in March 2019.

In the Written Ministerial Statement on Energy published on 11th January, the Government confirmed that it is pursuing as a priority bilateral Nuclear Cooperation Agreements with four international partners where such agreements are crucial for continuity of nuclear trading: USA, Japan, Canada and Australia. These discussions are progressing well and significant progress has been made.

There are also a number of additional countries with whom we will wish to discuss our ongoing nuclear co-operation to ensure that appropriate arrangements are in place to allow continuity in civil nuclear trade.