Recommendation 12

In our 2018 report on the Magnox contract we identified that lack of commercial capability—including getting rid of the post of Commercial Director—contributed to the organisation being unable to manage the original Magnox contract effectively.22 The NDA informed us about a number of areas in which it has made improvements since then. It has, for example, strengthened the central executive team with a new commercial director, general counsel, operations director and a risk and assurance director. The NDA has also appointed a new Chief Executive of Magnox Ltd (the NDA’s subsidiary responsible for day to day management of the Magnox sites), who has, in turn, recruited a new executive team. The NDA noted that having all the sites managed in-house helps to break down barriers and improve cooperation between teams and nuclear sites to bring about more standardisation of approach, improved learning and better efficiency. Nevertheless, the NDA admits that further capability is still required in some areas.23