Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the average age is of engineers in the civil nuclear industry.

Andrea Leadsom, Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change: The Nuclear Industry Council (NIC) runs an annual Nuclear Workforce Assessment (NWA) initiative to gather labour market intelligence from the nuclear industry. The development of robust labour market intelligence is vital to ensuring that government, employers, and skills bodies have a clear view of the future skill demands of the UK nuclear programme, and the existing skills base.