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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action, if any, they are taking to establish a state system of accountancy for safeguarded nuclear materials which will match that applied by Euratom.

The Government is working to implement a new domestic UK nuclear safeguards regime when Euratom arrangements no longer apply to the UK. The new regime will be regulated by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and will be equivalent in effectiveness and coverage to that currently provided by Euratom.

Parliament has passed the Nuclear Safeguards Act 2018 which provides the legal framework for setting up a domestic nuclear safeguards regime; and Government is consulting on draft Nuclear Safeguards Regulations, which set out the proposed detail of the regime.

The ONR will run the UK's State System of Accountancy and Control (SSAC) of Nuclear Material as part of the new domestic regime. The ONR is working to ensure it can have in place by 29 March 2019 the IT systems and safeguards inspectors needed to deliver safeguards arrangements that meet international standards and to build, over time, to coverage and effectiveness equivalent to Euratom.