Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 31
28th Report - Decommissioning Sellafield
Published 4 Jun 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Decommissioning Sellafield All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Department also considered that workers’ willingness to report safety issues is correlated with their willingness to report other poor behaviour.89 We asked about Sellafield Ltd’s use of non–disclosure agreements–a previous Public Accounts Committee report noted that these agreements have been used elsewhere in the public sector to cover up failure.90 The NDA told us that “there may be occasional instances” – and subsequently informed us that Sellafield Ltd had signed 16 non–disclosure 84 C&AG’s report, para 3.17 85 Committee of Public Accounts, Investigation into whistleblowing in the civil service, Thirty–sixth Report of Session 2023–24, HC 457, 25 May 2024 86 Q 9 87 Qq 3, 40; Letter from the Group Chief Executive Officer at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority relating to the oral evidence session held on 20 March on Decommissioning Sellafield, 4 April 2025, page 4 88 Q 85 89 Qq 85–86 90 Committee of Public Accounts, Confidentiality Clauses and Special Severance Payments, Thirty–sixth Report of Session 2013–14, HC 477, 24 January 2014 21 agreements in the last three years.91 Additionally, the NDA made ‘special payments’ of £377,200 in 2023–24 to settle claims relating to employment matters.92 The NDA acknowledged that “there is more work to do across the group”, and committed to “continue to work them through and investigate where appropriate”.93 Both the NDA and Sellafield Ltd insisted that they were “not complacent” when it comes to addressing bullying and harassment.94
From: Public Accounts Committee, 28th Report - Decommissioning Sellafield (HC 363), 4 June 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-eighth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 4 August 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-eighth report from Session 2024-26
Published 18 September 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it agrees with each of the Committee's recommendations covered in this extract, with target implementation dates ranging from December 2025 to March 2027, though some are already implemented and some publication details remain to be settled.
- On oversight (recommendation 1), the government agrees and describes the recommendation as implemented. Since January 2025 the department's Principal Sponsor chairs monthly performance meetings, and a review of the revised governance structure will be initiated within 2025-26.
- On medium-term targets (recommendation 2), the government agrees, with a target date of March 2027. Work "is required to establish how and then when this information would be made public", and DESNZ will commission an independent, externally led review of the NDA Group by end-2025.
- On asset management (recommendation 4), the government agrees and says the recommendation is implemented. It states that "Solely increasing the productivity of maintenance teams misses the demands" of the site's complex asset picture.
- On long-term cost scenarios (recommendation 5), the government agrees, with a target date of December 2026. It says "It will be necessary to agree the mechanism and timing, including what is published".