- Date released
- 27 October 2020
- Request number
- 202009040
- Release of information under
- Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)
Information requested
ONR's Annual Report and Accounts, published on 29 September, at page 27, under the subheading Working with government states "This year we provided input to work on [ …. ] proposals for a Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model as a possible funding model for new nuclear projects..."
I am intrigued as to why the regulator should be assisting ministers in finding ways to fund new nuclear projects, as it seems substantially outside of ONR's Vires. Therefore, under Freedom of Information Act 2000, could you provide me with:
A) copies of the input provide to Government;
B) A copy of the contract specifying this work;
C) A copy of the minute for the Board meeting that authorized this action without the ONR VIRES
and
D) Copies of all emails sent (1) internally and (2) externally on the ONR server associated with this work
Information released
We have addressed the parts of your request separately below.
A) Copies of the input provided to Government; and
I can confirm that under Section 1 of the FOIA, we hold information related to part A and D of your request and am pleased to release the information attached in Annex A. This includes our consultation response which we sent to BEIS in relation to their consultation on RAB for nuclear in October 2019. Further, as part of government’s policy development we delivered some presentations to policy officials in BEIS to ensure they have an accurate and up to date view of the current regulatory framework.
Our consultation response effectively summarises our advice to government on RAB, which is that safety and security should remain paramount in decision making in the context of any future RAB model.
We are particularly interested in the following aspects of RAB: the design of incentives within any future RAB to ensure that the behaviour they drive in our dutyholders is beneficial to safety and security, the need for an effective regulatory interface between ourselves and any economic regulator and the potential safety and security benefits of replication.
Some information from the documents listed in Annex A has been redacted to remove personal data. This has been withheld using the exemption section 40(2) of the FOIA. In particular, release of the information would breach principle (a) of GDPR (lawfulness, fairness and transparency) on the grounds that there is no lawful basis to process this data. In addition, releasing this personal data would also breach principle (b) of GDPR (purpose limitation) as the data was provided for the purposes of presentation ownership or circulation, or were incidental over the course of email exchanges.
There are further documents and emails that we hold related to parts A and D of your request, which we may also be able to release to you. We are though considering those under the exemption ‘Prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs’ in Section 36 of the Act. This is because, as we set out in more detail below, part of ONR’s role is to engage with government and others on matters relating to nuclear safety. Sometimes this will include discussions at the early stages of policy development to ensure key safety considerations are factored in. To allow us to be effective in this it’s vital that we can be open and honest in our exchanges. We are concerned that release of these further document may inhibit the free and frank exchange of views in future and this is why we need some additional time to consider whether releasing this information would be in the public interest. This means we will have a response for you on or before 24 November 2020. We apologise for any inconvenience this delay may cause.
B) A copy of the contract specifying this work;
C) A copy of the minutes for the Board meeting that authorized this action without the ONR VIRES
I can confirm that under Section 1 of the FOIA, we do not hold information related to parts B and C of your request and I am happy to explain why this is the case. As mentioned above, an important part of ONR’s role, as set out in The Energy Act 2013 (TEA13), is to appropriately inform and advise government on the implications of policy and legislative measures that are relevant to our purposes and functions. As such, we regularly engage with government on matters relating to nuclear safety, security and safeguards. Our Strategy 2020-25 makes clear our commitment to inform government policy, and our engagement on RAB is described in our corporate plan in the regulatory planning assumptions as follows:
ONR will provide ongoing technical and regulatory policy advice as the government’s proposal for a Regulated Asset Base Model for nuclear develops, ensuring that safety and security remain paramount, but there will be no change to our vires or regulatory programme in the next 12 months.
As our current work in relation to RAB falls within our routine business, there has been no need to secure a specific contract at this time. Nor is there a requirement for specific Board authorisation beyond their routine agreement of our regulatory planning assumptions and our annual corporate plan.
Exemptions applied
Section 40(2)
PIT (Public Interest Test) if applicable
N/A