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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions (a) his Department or (b) the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority had with Energy Solutions and Bechtel on any proposals that the voiding of the Magnox decommissioning contract agreed with the Cavendish Fluor partnership should be a part of the arrangement to provide settlement payments to both companies.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA’s) decision to terminate the contract with Cavendish Fluor Partnership, subsequently ratified by my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, was due to the significant mismatch between the work that was specified in the contract as tendered in 2012 and the work actually required. The decision to terminate was entirely separate and independent from the NDA’s decision to settle with Energy Solutions and Bechtel, and was handled as such. This separation was made clear in my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State’s remarks to the House on 27 March 2017.