To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many (a) Health and Safety Executive and (b) Nuclear Installations Inspectorate staff work (i) full-time and (ii) part-time on the generic design assessment (GDA) of new power station designs; and how many such staff he expects to work on the GDA in each of the next three years. (260441)

I have been asked to reply.

The amount of time Nuclear Inspectors in the Health and Safety Executive spent on generic design assessment (GDA) in the last two quarters was:

This is entirely made up of Nuclear Installations Inspectorate staff working on GDA. Approximately 7 per cent. of this effort is from staff not dedicated just to GDA, so only working part-time on GDA.

We expect around 25 Inspectors to be working on GDA up to mid June 2011. It is too early to estimate how many Inspectors will be working on the new nuclear build programme after that date.