To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Southwark and Bermondsey (Mr. Hughes), of 19 May Official Report, column 179, if he will set out the reasons for the delay in publishing the 1991 United Kingdom radioactive waste inventory; and what steps will be taken to speed up the publication of the 1992 and 1993 inventories.
The 1991 United Kingdom radioactive waste inventory was produced by Electrowatt Engineering Ltd. under joint contract to the Department of the Environment and UK Nirex Ltd. It contains substantially more data than previous inventories and there were some problems in clearing and verifying this data with the industry. The next inventory, which will show stocks of radioactive waste as at 1 January 1994, will broadly follow this new format and we will be looking to the industry for a quicker response.