Ed Miliband to exempt Sellafield firms from Freedom of Information Act

Move comes on top of decision by government to make taxpayer liable for any accidents at the nuclear power plant
David Hencke, Westminster correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Monday November 17 2008 17.53 GMT

Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change secretary, is to exempt from the Freedom of Information Act the new US-led private consortia taking over the running of Britain's biggest nuclear facility at Sellafield next Monday.
The move comes on top of a decision by Malcolm Wicks, the former energy minister, to make the taxpayer liable for any accidents at Sellafield, which is in Cumbria, exempting the firm from the national requirement to pay the first £140m of any bill for leaks or radioactive contamination.
It comes as the Speaker of the Commons has granted an emergency debate on Wednesday to Paul Flynn, Labour MP for Newport West, who is demanding an explanation of why Wicks broke parliamentary procedures in rushing through the exemption from liabilities for the new consortia.
Wicks used emergency procedures to inform Edward Leigh, the chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, of the proposals, and told MPs the documents had been put in the House of Commons library.
Earlier this month it was discovered that the documents announcing the proposed exemption were not put in the library until October 14 - 75 days after the closing date for objections.
In the meantime, the government had signed the deal with the consortium led by American firm URS Washington, French firm Areva and the UK company Amec for the £6.5bn contract on October 6.
Leigh has since wanted the procedures reopened so MPs could have their say but Miliband has refused. In a letter placed in the library he said: "Any proposals to rescind the prior approval of the nuclear indemnity or to subject it to a further process of review would completely undermine the contractual position that has been established between Nuclear Decommisisoning Authority and NMPL (the consortia), putting the very completion of the competition in jeopardy."
The NDA confirmed yesterday that Sellafield Ltd - as the new organisation will be known - would be exempt from the FOI laws because it is a private company.
The spokesman added, however: "Since the NDA still owns the land and buildings people will still be able to make requests through us about Sellafield. They will not be able to request information directly from the consortia."
Bill Hamilton, the head of "stakeholder communications" at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, posted a comment to a blog on the issue last month suggesting that some liabilities might be met after all.
He wrote: "All the bidders for the Sellafield contract offered to meet some of these potential costs (these are still confidential as we have not yet transferred the shares to the winning consortia) … But, the principle has been established that these consortia will take initial responsibility for liabilities … outwith the £140m they are required by law to have insurance for."
Details should be released at a later date.