I attach for the Committee's use in this inquiry a formal Memorandum from the Department of Trade and Industry approved by my Ministers which seeks to cover all the areas of interest indicated by the Committee in its Press Release. It also addresses in some detail why the full figures on the Georgian HEU shipment were not in the public domain sooner. I know that our Parliamentary Clerk forwarded to you yesterday evening the Pursuant PQ from Mr Battle which puts the fullest possible figures before the House.

  I also attach for the use of the Committee, but on a Restricted basis, a second Memorandum on the Regulation of Security on UKAEA, BNFL and URENCO licensed sites which has also been cleared by my Ministers. This includes site specific details of policing which we do not put into the public domain for obvious security reasons. However it is right to communicate this information to the Committee, given the concerns expressed by Mr Tony Pointer, the former Chief Constable of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Constabulary, in his evidence to the Committee. It is more appropriate for the DTI, as the formal regulator of security in the nuclear industry, to respond to these points rather than UKAEA as the site operator at Dounreay.

  As background to this Memorandum, and for the Committee's reference, I also include two documents. The first, which is also Restricted, is the 1990 edition of Minimum Standards, the key text for standard setting and audit use by DCNSy when assessing the adequacy of physical protection standards on these sites. Much of the detail in it is based upon an International Atomic Energy Agency published Guidelines document "The Physical Protection of Nuclear Material"—INFCIRC/225/Rev.3. As the Memorandum makes clear, both the INFCIRC document and Minimum Standards are currently being revised. Unfortunately the new Minimum Standards document, though almost ready, has not yet been cleared through Ministers. Thus we cannot submit it for the Committee's use.

11 June 1998