I am extremely grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, for his kind remarks about the two amendments which stand in my name. It is very important, when you are setting up a board of this kind, to have a proper balance between executive and non-executive members. We are in an interim position concerning the executive members. The chief inspector, Dr Mike Weightman, retired earlier this year, and that was a considerable loss. He established not only a huge personal relationship but an important overseas relationship with the regulator in this country. There is great admiration from many nuclear countries
overseas for our system of regulation, and a succession of chief inspectors, not least Dr Weightman himself, have made a major contribution to that.
Obviously, one has to have a strong chief executive and chief inspector, but it is also very important that one has on the board a mixture of executive and non-executive members. My amendment simply prescribes that:
“At least one non-executive member must have experience of, or expertise in, matters relevant to the ONR’s nuclear safety purposes”.
That is self-evident, but it is not in the Bill. I think that that is the right way to do that.
On the other hand, I do not agree with the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, that there should be appointments from the NDA and the other body mentioned. They seem to me to be much too directly involved in the work of the board and of the ONR. They are among the regulators, and that is probably not right. There are a number of experts from academia and elsewhere in industry who could fulfil that role without having to look to the Government’s own bodies to provide people for the board. Under my amendment, at least one of them must have experience in the matters which concern the board. That would strengthen the board and the legislation and add to the public reputation of the ONR and its board.