Progress report: Terminating the Magnox contract
| Audit Id | 1612457811730 |
|---|---|
| Title | Progress report: Terminating the Magnox contract |
| Title in original language |
Progress report: Terminating the Magnox contract English |
| Year | 2020 |
| Subject |
Business and Industry Energy Environment and Natural Resources Infrastructure |
| Type |
Performance |
| Type of performance |
Performed by single SAI |
| Comments | Between 2012 and 2014, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) ran a competitive procurement exercise for a parent company to manage the decommissioning of two nuclear research sites and 10 Magnox sites. The latter comprise power stations that were at, or nearing, the end of their operational life. In September 2014, the NDA awarded the 14-year Magnox contract to Cavendish Fluor Partnership (CFP). In July 2016, the High Court ruled that the NDA had wrongly decided the outcome of the procurement process. In March 2017, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy announced that the NDA had agreed settlements totalling £97.3 million with the bidder that brought the legal claims against the NDA. He also announced that the NDA had decided, based on legal advice, to terminate the contract with CFP nine years early due to a “significant mismatch” between the work specified in the tendered contract and the work that needed to be done. In October 2017 we reported that the failed Magnox contract had cost the taxpayer more than £122 million by the time it was announced that it was to be terminated. We also found that the NDA’s poor understanding of what was happening on the sites had contributed to serious problems after it awarded the contract to CFP in 2014, with its assumptions about the work required proving to be inaccurate. In 2018, the Committee of Public Accounts (the Committee) published a critical report and recommended that the NDA improve its understanding of the state of the sites, its ability to monitor work carried out on them, and the capability and expertise of its executive team. |
| Author |
United Kingdom |
| Materials |
Audit report English |
| Contact |
|
Chair:
Member:
Postal address:
Telephone:
Email:
Web address: