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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with representatives of EDF on the closure of the Taishan EPR nuclear power plant for safety reasons; and if he will make a statement.

BEIS officials are engaged regularly with representatives from both EDF Energy and the Office for Nuclear Regulation (the ONR) on a wide range of matters relating to nuclear reactors, including Taishan nuclear power plant in China.

As the independent regulator, the ONR will ensure that events at Taishan, and any associated learning, forms part of its ongoing scrutiny of the EPR at Hinkley Point C.

In the design and construction of any nuclear site in Great Britain, licensees (operators) must demonstrate the highest standards with regards to oversight of their key suppliers and components, and the ONR will hold them to account against those requirements. If the ONR judged that any reactor was unsafe it would not allow it to be built or to operate.