To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on his Department"s policy towards the relative merits of a central dry store facility for nuclear waste as against small storage systems above ground at the sites where the nuclear waste is created.

My right hon. Friend shall form a view of the relative merits of a central dry store facility for nuclear waste as opposed to small storage systems above ground where the nuclear waste is created when proposals are made in sufficient detail for assessment of their respective environmental implications.