Part 4: Miscellaneous and Final Provisions Section 40: Decommissioning of nuclear sites: bodies corporate not "associated"
This section amends the Energy Act 2008 to provide clarification as to the meaning of ‘associated’ for the purposes of determining the bodies on whom the Secretary of State may potentially impose obligations under an FDP in relation to a new nuclear power station. Subsection (1) amends section 67 of the Energy Act 2008 in order to make it subject to a new section 67A.
	Subsection (2) adds in a new section 67A to the Energy Act 2008, to clarify the interests, rights and powers that should not be taken into account for the purposes of determining whether one body corporate is ‘associated’ with a nuclear site operator. The section covers, for example, the activities of security trustees and secured creditors. For example, secured creditors and security trustees may carry out activities connected to the holding and enforcement of certain security rights, but they would only ever exercise these to enforce or preserve or realise the value of their security in the event of a default by the operator under the relevant financing arrangements. These rights are contingent and have nothing to do with the day-to-day management or operation of the company, and so should be disregarded when considering which bodies corporate are ‘associated’ with the operator. Subsections (1) to (3) of the new section 67A of the Energy Act 2008 make provision for this.
	Subsection (4) of the new section 67A also clarifies that, where A acquires shares in B by virtue of the exercise of ‘relevant share security rights’, such shares should only be excluded from consideration for the purposes of section 67 where A retains those shares only for the purpose of preserving the value of the security interest in question or of realising that security interest. This is to avoid a circumstance where corporate bodies may attempt to use this provision to exclude their activities from consideration for the purposes of the definition of ‘associated’ inappropriately.
	To ensure that the activities of security trustees are fully captured for the purposes of this provision, subsections (5)(b) and (c) of the new section 67A makes clear that this section covers rights and shares held on trust.