Rt Hon Greg Clark
Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
1 Victoria Street
London

29^th July 2016

Dear Greg,

Re. Hinkley Point C Investment Agreement

I am writing to you regarding the potential approval of an investment agreement for Hinkley Point C. I welcome the announcement that the government will take the time to properly consider its decision and I am writing to ask you not to sign final contracts for the new nuclear power station following the investment decision by EDF Energy yesterday. Alongside the spiralling costs and safety concerns that I have outlined previously, to sign these contracts before there has been proper Parliamentary scrutiny of the significant increase in costs would be to completely undermine the democratic process.

Last year, the government presented a Departmental Minute to Parliament explaining, “when a government department proposes to undertake a contingent liability or commitment for which there is no specific statutory authority which is significant in relation to the organisation’s (or the particular programme) expenditure, for the Minister concerned to present a departmental Minute to parliament giving particulars of the liability created.”

In that minute, the government estimated that the subsidies provided to Hinkley Point C through the Contract for Difference would be “in the range of £4bn to £19bn (real 2012 prices, discounted to 2012) depending on the level of future wholesale prices”.

Since that minute was published, the National Audit Office has produced a detailed report on the viability of nuclear power in the UK and significantly revised its estimates of the Contract for Difference subsidies up from £6.1 billion to £29.7 billion.

I believe this is a significant deviation from the original projected costs as presented in the Departmental Minute - and thus represents a strong a case for the Department to resubmit a revised estimate to Parliament. This case is made all the more urgent given that the same report from the National Audit Office makes clear that renewables are cost competitive with nuclear power – and that their cost is falling whilst nuclear becomes more expensive.

I ask that you present the revised government estimates before Parliament in advance of signing any binding contract. Given the huge increase in costs, not to do so would be a gross breach of Parliamentary democracy. Hinkley Point C is not expected to begin generating electricity until the late 2020s whilst the major construction work will likely not commence for several years. There are no good reasons to rush through a decision before a new minute detailing liabilities has been presented.

I also ask that you follow custom, as detailed in the initial minute, and “refrain from incurring the liability until fourteen parliamentary sitting days after the issue of the minute.”

On a decision of such scale and national importance, it is vital that the full costs are made public; that a comprehensive assessment of alternatives takes place; and that democratic checks are properly followed.

Yours sincerely,