My Lords, I was going to move this and the next set of regulations jointly, as set out on the Order Paper. However, I received a request from the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, and I am grateful to him for giving notice that he would find it more convenient if we dealt with them separately. I am more than happy to comply with that request. Therefore, we will debate these regulations and then, I hope, as I seek to earn my sweeties from the sweetie cupboard, we will move on to the final Motion in my name.
There are two sets of related regulations being considered today, each requiring a separate vote— that is possibly why the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, would like us to have two separate debates. The Nuclear Safeguards (Fissionable Material and Relevant International Agreements) (EU Exit) Regulations define the terms “fissionable material” and “relevant international agreements” for the purpose of the sections of the Energy Act 2013, as amended by the Nuclear Safeguards Act 2018. These terms are used in the related Nuclear Safeguards (EU Exit) Regulations 2018, which will be considered in due course, and set out the detail of the legal framework for our new domestic safeguards regime.
I begin by emphasising that the two sets of regulations are essential to establishing our domestic regime whether we leave the EU with a deal or not. The powers to make this secondary legislation are found in the Energy Act 2013, as amended by the Nuclear Safeguards Act 2018. The territorial extent and application of these regulations is England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Nuclear safeguards are accounting, reporting and verification processes designed to assure and demonstrate to the international community that civil nuclear material is not diverted unlawfully into military or weapons programmes. As was made clear during the passage of the Nuclear Safeguards Act, nuclear safeguards are separate and distinct from nuclear safety and nuclear security.
The nuclear industry is of key strategic importance to the United Kingdom and our departure from the EU in no way diminishes the ambition that we have set
out in the nuclear sector deal. The UK has a long and distinguished record as a responsible nuclear state and was a founding member of the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1957. The IAEA ensures that states are honouring their international legal nuclear safeguards obligations in connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the NPT. While not bound by the NPT, the UK has voluntarily accepted the application of two safeguards agreements with the IAEA: a voluntary offer agreement and an additional protocol, as defined in these regulations. These bilateral agreements will replace the trilateral safeguards agreements between the UK, the IAEA and Euratom, and ensure that we continue in our role as a responsible nuclear state when Euratom arrangements no longer apply. The ratification of these agreements was approved by Parliament at the end of last year.
To enable continuity of civil nuclear trade with our international trading partners, the Government have prioritised having in place nuclear co-operation agreements with Australia, Canada, Japan and the USA, as required by these countries. NCAs are legally binding treaties that allow states formally to recognise their willingness to co-operate with each other on civil nuclear matters.
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The UK has now concluded, and the UK Parliament has now approved, the ratification of these new bilateral NCAs with Australia, Canada and the US. The new bilateral NCAs will replace the NCAs that these countries have in place with Euratom, which the UK currently benefits from as a member state. The UK already has a bilateral NCA with Japan.
I want to reiterate the Government’s commitment to establishing by December 2020 a regime that will be equivalent in effectiveness and coverage to that currently provided by Euratom, and which will exceed the commitments that the international community expects the UK to meet. Our approach is to establish a regime that will operate in a similar way to the existing arrangements, taking account of best practice in UK regulation-making and considering the need to minimise disruption to industry. Both the Euratom regulations and the nuclear safeguards regulations are structured to require information concerning nuclear safeguards to be supplied to the relevant entity, whether the Commission or the ONR, which the regulator may then forward, as appropriate, to the IAEA.
My department held a consultation on the content of both these and the nuclear safeguards regulations between July and September last year. In total, 28 formal responses were received. A government response to the public consultation was published on 29 November, summarising the comments received. Responses to the consultation did not suggest any major changes to these regulations.
The term “fissionable material” forms a component of “qualifying nuclear material”, which is defined in the Energy Act 2013 as amended by the Nuclear Safeguards Act 2018. The definition of fissionable material in these regulations has been based on the definition of “special fissionable material” in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article XX of the IAEA statute, on definitions.
The second term that these regulations define is “relevant international agreements”, which are defined to include six agreements. The first two were signed on 7 June 2018 and are between the UK and the International Atomic Energy Agency. They take the form of the main agreement together with an additional protocol. The other four agreements are three new bilateral NCAs between the UK and the US, Canada and Australia, which were signed in 2018, and an existing bilateral agreement between the UK and Japan, signed in 1998.
The definitions in these regulations are important, as are the nuclear safeguards regulations that this House will consider shortly, and will apply to qualifying nuclear material, including fissionable material, as defined in these regulations. I therefore commend them to the House.