The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

25 November 2009

The NDA is totally focused on achieving its clean-up mission while providing value for money for the UK taxpayer.  This is even more crucial given the wider economic situation.  

As part of its financial and budgetary planning processes the NDA, along with other agencies, is taking part in a Government-wide review to identify options for transformational value for money savings called the Public Value Programme (PVP). The aim is to drive efficiency and effectiveness, and options identified through the PVP process will be used to inform the next spending review, currently expected in the first half of 2010.

The NDA Board will consider a range of options that will be submitted to a review panel of senior Government officials, including representation from the nuclear regulators which is essential to ensure safety considerations are taken fully into account. The range of scenarios to be considered includes:

• Bringing forward some work, subject to affordability, where there are strong value for money business cases
• Deferral of some non-essential work to later years
• Deletion of scope where alternative plans can be formed
• Increasing income generation from our remaining assets
• Opportunities for further efficiency savings across the estate    

This work has begun and is due to be completed by February. We will ensure that stakeholders are kept informed at all stages of this process.     

Within a constrained funding environment, it is critical that we are able to direct every available pound towards core activity. Therefore, it is a priority for the whole NDA estate, including our Site Licence Companies which carry out the work on our sites and the NDA itself, to reduce the proportion of our budget spent on support costs so that we can deliver more decommissioning and clean-up work.