Hinkley Point C Stakeholder Group Report

Note to Editors

• The Hinkley Point C Stakeholder reference group (“the Hinkley Group”) is an independent advisory group set up by the Welsh First Minister, Mark Drakeford, to assess implications for Wales of the nuclear new build power station in Somerset.
• Details of the Group’s work since its inception last July is available here - https://gov.wales/hinkley-point-c-stakeholder-reference-group
• Hinkley Point C was granted a Development Consent order in 2013 by the then UK government Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). It is being developed by NNB GenCo, a subsidiary of EDF.
• There are ongoing regulatory processes in progress, including an appeal on the environmental permit being heard by the Planning Inspectorate. The Group has no statutory authority in any regulatory processes – its remit is solely to advise the Welsh Government.
• The Hinkley Group is chaired by Jane Davidson and has seven further members with backgrounds and employment in academia, nuclear energy, environmental and ecological conservation, environmental law and public health. Biographies for all members are available online and in the report.
• The Hinkley Group report will be published on the Welsh Government’s website on Tuesday 16 March. The report is accompanied by two annex documents, containing full notes of the Group’s meetings, biographies and the Group’s formal correspondence with stakeholders. A Written Statement from the First Minister will be issued shortly after the Group’s report is published.
• The report contains six substantive chapters, addressing matters of potential implication for Wales. A seventh chapter compiles the primary advice from the six substantive chapters in one place. The chapters are:
• Resilience of the Severn Estuary Ecosystem
• Cross-border relationships and arrangements
• Radioactive content of Hinkley Point sediments and their assessment for disposal at sea
• Modelling Studies and Cardiff Grounds Disposal Site
• Emergency planning for nuclear operations at Hinkley Point
• Use of powers by the Welsh Government and its agencies in the context of the Hinkley Point C sediment disposal at Cardiff Grounds
• Advice

The Hinkley Group hopes its report will be received and considered by all stakeholders in the project.  Its advice is clearly set out within the report, but the Group believes the broad themes of its evidence-based report to be:

• Government decisions on major projects generally stretch over a number of years from initial planning to subsequent revisions and onto a variety of regulatory decisions that are required. The Group would advise that there be a presumption that any variations in applications must show that it will deliver at least the same level of environmental protection as that stipulated in the original decision, and ideally improve upon it.
• The relationship between planning and regulatory control. The group noted that although this is supposed to be mutually reinforcing, in practical terms the granting of planning permission and the commencement of activity on the ground creates a momentum to proceed in a specific direction - that could compromise the range of viable regulatory decisions that can be taken thereafter. To this end it is crucial that in such a large and sensitive project, planning and practical pollution control issue should be addressed in a more integrated manner from the outset.

Enquiries on the report should be directed via the Welsh Government’s Press Office