To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to the answer by the President of the Board of Trade of 25 May, Official Report, column 488, if he will make a statement on the current timing of the decision in respect of revised discharge authorisations in connection with the commissioning of the thermal oxide reprocessing plant at Sellafield.

We have received the report of Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution and the radiological inspectorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on their public consultation on the draft authorisations for the Sellafield site including THORP. My right hon. Friends the Secretary of State and the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food are currently considering it.