My honourable friend the Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change (Mike O’Brien) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

On 16 October 2008 (Official Report, Commons, col. 47WS), I informed the House that my right honourable friend the then Secretary of State for the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform wrote to the Business and Enterprise Select Committee in September 2008 to inform members of EDF’s takeover offer for British Energy. Copies of this letter were placed in the Libraries of the House.

I am pleased to report that EDF has now successfully completed the takeover of British Energy, which included the 36 per cent stake in the company held by the Nuclear Liabilities Fund (NLF). The sale has raised approximately £4.42 billion for the NLF, which was set up at the time of BE’s privatisation in 1996 to meet the eventual decommissioning costs of existing nuclear power stations. EDF will transfer this amount to NLF by Monday 19 January 2009.  Completion of the takeover was announced by EDF on Monday 5 January 2009.