Speeches by Young.

“I thank the 257 constituents in Thornbury and Yate who signed the petition. I want to focus on one symptom of the broken system: emotionally based school non-attendance. Children whose needs are not met can struggle to attend school and, too often, the response is to punish the parents rather than to provide extra supp…”

“Okay. Do you think there could be an alternative test that might ensure public safety and maintain confidence? For example, the REPPIR are already site-specific and proportionate. Some people have suggested that a simple fix would be to scrap the SUPDC and simply fold REPPIR requirements into the national policy statem…”

“Rebecca, have you anything to add on that question about how the policy interacts with housing targets and the Government’s planning reforms?”

“On the Finnish one, it sounds like the manufacturers are setting their own requirements. What sort of outside checking is done?”

“Should the presence of a nuclear power station affect future housing development within its population density buffer? And how should the policy interact with housing targets and the Government’s planning reforms?”

“Currently the HSE carries out the semi-urban criterion tests, but if asked, will the ONR review the methodology?”

“Mike, could you clarify how the ONR approaches emergency planning and how requirements in site licensing interact with planning policy tools?”

“Is that something you could look at and get back to us about?”

“How do you respond to the suggestion that we take the Finnish approach?”

“I asked the last panel about the semi-urban population density criteria that the Government retained in EN-7, but which they have said they are open to revisiting. Is the Government’s regulatory taskforce right that EN-7 misses an opportunity to re-examine SUPDC?”

“It is an acoustic deterrent. I appreciate that.”

“The Committee is concerned that we have heard evidence that environmental mitigations are not being delivered. How do you ensure that they are, and that it is done in an enforceable and transparent way?”

“We saw at Hinkley that they tried to get out of the so-called “fish disco”. They ended up proposing saltmarshes many miles away from their original site—one of them in my patch. Is it acceptable to do something so far off site? What is being done to ensure that developers actually stick to what they agreed to in the fi…”

“Okay. To move on to biodiversity and habitat rules, current habitats and environmental impact assessment rules often require mitigation on or near the project site. What should EN-7’s approach be to off-site or offsetting measures to meet biodiversity and habitat obligations?”

“Before we move on to our questions about habitats and environmental impact assessment, I want to ask Rebecca this: is there anything you think can be done? To go back to the question I asked about where sites are close together, where you may be able to do something and gain added benefit, is there any way that can be …”

“As the Member representing Oldbury, I feel obliged to say that the community there has missed out as well, because it was involved in the STEP fusion bidding process and narrowly missed out. However, I want to pick up on something that Alastair said about Berkeley. Part of that STEP fusion proposal, and more recently o…”

“Julia?”

“So is the manufacturer saying, “This is what we think the exclusion zones need to be,” and then the regulator is checking that?”

“Julia, do you have anything to add?”

“Okay. Is it accurate to say that the SUPDC assessments by the Health and Safety Executive are slow and complex? We will start with Tom.”