PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Nuclear Installations (30 June 2014)

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, with reference to the Answer of 28 April 2014, Official Report, column 507W, on nuclear installation, what approval mechanisms he (a) has and (b) intends to put in place to ensure that costs are minimised.

Asked by:
Mark Tami (Labour)

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is responsible for running the competition to secure a new Parent Body Organisation for Magnox Ltd and Research Sites Restoration Ltd, and will be responsible for ensuring that the benefits of the contract, including cost savings, are realised subsequently.

The NDA has run the competition using the Competitive Dialogue procedure, under which the evaluation must identify the Most Economically Advantageous Tender. The NDA invited tenders on the basis of an estimated scope of activities required over a 14-year period, with an indicative cost forecast of up to £7 billion. Savings were sought against this target, together with proposals for innovative solutions that would generate efficiencies and/or optimise the decommissioning process.

The successful bid was selected from four tender submissions which were subject to comprehensive evaluation and scrutiny by the NDA against a range of criteria including cost, health, safety and security, underpinning technical rationale, commercial terms and approach to socio-economics. The preferred bid represents a saving of at least £1 billion compared to the original baseline.

Answered by:
Sir Michael Fallon (Conservative)
8 July 2014