Appendix 5 Draft Uranium Enrichment Technology
(Prohibition on Disclosure) Regulations 2004: memorandum from
the Department of Trade and Industry
Draft Uranium Enrichment Technology (Prohibition
on Disclosure) Regulations 2004
1. By a letter of 29 June 2004 the Committee has
requested a memorandum on the following points in relation to
the above instrument.
(1) Contravention of a prohibition imposed by
the regulations is an offence carrying a maximum penalty of 7
years' imprisonment. In view of the paragraph 2.5.9 of the Statutory
Instrument Practice, please explain:
- why the regulations are to come into force
on the day after that on which they are made;
- what arrangements have been made to ensure
that the regulations will be available to the public on the commencement
date.
2. The Department notes the Committee's concern on
this point, and has decided to withdraw the regulations and re-lay
them with a commencement date 4 weeks after the day on which they
are made.
3. The Department will also be publicising the regulations
on the day that they are made by
- sending the guidance on the regulations to the
nuclear industry and to the academic and scientific representative
bodies whom we have previously consulted;
- issuing a press notice announcing that the regulations
have been made and will come into force in 4 weeks' time; and
- putting a notice to that effect on the DTI website.
(2) Regulation 2(1) and (4) prohibit disclosure
of information about certain specified matters where the information
"would assist or enable" a specified activity such as
testing enrichment equipment. Please state whether, and if so
why, it is considered that the information necessarily "is,
or is likely to be, used in connection with the enrichment of
uranium", as contemplated by section 80(1)(b) of the 2001
Act.
4. Section 80(1)(a) of the 2001 Act applies to "any
information about the enrichment of uranium". The Department
considers that all the information covered by regulation 2(1)
and (4) is information about the enrichment of uranium, and that
the limitation to information which "would assist or enable"
is a further limitation on those classes.
(3) Which particular Community obligations, if
any, is regulation 3(4) intended to cover?
5. Regulation 3(4) was drafted with the rules on
free movement in mind, in particular Article 28 of the EC Treaty
and the Dual-Use Goods Regulation. The Department found it impractical
to define the precise limitations within the regulations.
(4) Why do regulations 4(8)(b) and 5(8)(b) apply
to all information which is material to the application
or representations, even if, had it been provided, it might have
led to a decision more favourable to the applicant or interested
party (e.g. different conditions or a different variation)?
6. The technology covered by the regulations is extremely
sensitive, and the Department, on security grounds, considers
that a very high standard of disclosure should apply to all applications
for authorisation, and should be set out clearly and with certainty
in the regulations. The Department considers that failure to disclose
any material information goes to the trustworthiness of applicants,
and that it is essential that only trustworthy applicants are
granted authorisations. It is, of course, a matter of judgement
as to whether a particular fact is favourable to an applicant
or not, and it would be unfortunate if debates on that issue were
used to evade the standards which the Department wants to set.
30 June 2004
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