LIDDELL BACKS NEW START FOR BNFL

Helen Liddell today welcomed the announcement of significant management change at BNFL and the company's positive response to HSE (Health and Safety Executive) reports on the Sellafield site.

"BNFL is an important company facing major challenges. I welcome the changes announced by the company today, which I believe represent the kind of positive response needed to address the problems faced by the company:

"The prime responsibility of the company must be to ensure that it operates safely. I welcome the company's strong and explicit commitment to deliver the improvements in safety and management called for by the HSE's reports. Safety and quality are two sides of the same coin. Both are of paramount importance if BNFL are to regain the full confidence of all their stakeholders, and the public, in the UK and overseas.

"The specific commitments to strengthen the company's safety management organisation, alongside more effective internal audit arrangements should mean that the changes will be delivered. Progress will be reported regularly to HSE who will be monitoring developments.

"It is important that the changes announced today, stretching right across the company, are rigorously implemented. I have every confidence in the new top management team of Hugh Collum and Norman Askew and in their commitment and ability to deliver change. I believe the approach which they have set out will allow BNFL to secure a strong and sound business future for itself in the global nuclear market. And in doing so, provide the basis for the successful achievement of a Public Private Partnership for the company."

"We must not lose sight of the substantial contribution BNFL makes to the UK economy. There are immensely dedicated, talented and skilled people working throughout the company. There is also an enormous body of engineering and scientific excellence. These now need to be matched by the right managerial skills.

  BNFL today published its response to February's HSE reports. Ministers had also encouraged the Chairman to carry out a thorough management review. The company today made his conclusions public.

  Notes to Editors:

  1.  Hugh Collum's management review was announced on 18 February, at the same time as the Health and Safety Executive published three reports on the Sellafield site (Ref: DTI Press Notice P/2000/110). The HSE reports published covered:

—  Team Inspection of the Control and Supervision of Operations at BNFL Sellafield;

—  An Investigation into the falsification of pellet diameter data in the MOX Demonstration Facility at the BNFL Sellafield site and the effect of this on the safety of MOX fuel in use;

—  The Storage of Liquid High Level Waste at BNFL Sellafield.

  2.  Today, as well as announcing changes to its management BNFL published its responses to the first two of these reports. The responses are available at http://www.bnfl.com

18 April 2000