Report in the Magnox Inquiry published

Today sees the publication of the Report of the Magnox Inquiry: here. The Chair of the Inquiry was Steve Halliday, the former Chief Executive of National Grid. Jason Beer QC was Counsel to the Inquiry.

The Inquiry was established by the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Industrial Strategy into the award of the Magnox decommissioning contract by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (the “NDA”) and its subsequent termination.  

From April 2012 the NDA ran a £6.1 billion tender process from April 2012 for the management and decommissioning of 12 redundant Magnox sites (including 2 research sites) which, together with the Calder Hall reactor on the Sellafield site, formed the UK’s first fleet of nuclear power stations. 

The tender process resulted in the award of a 14-year contract in September 2014 to the Cavendish Fluor Partnership. This decision was approved by the then Department for Energy and Climate Change and HM Treasury.

Other companies that participated in the tender process brought claims against the NDA and in July 2016 Fraser J found that the NDA wrongly decided the outcome of the procurement process. By making many manifest errors in evaluating both the losing and the winning bids. The NDA subsequently agreed settlement payments with Energy Solutions of £76.5 million (plus £8.5 million in costs), and with Bechtel of £14.8 million (plus costs of around £462,000).

The Inquiry concluded that a series of significant errors were made by the NDA.  It made recommendations addressed to both the NDA and the wider public sector.

Jason Beer QC is a specialist in public inquiries – he has appeared in 17 such inquiries over the past 20 years.

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Related barristers

Jason Beer KC

Call 1992 | Silk 2011

Related areas

Public & Administrative

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Public Inquiries

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