Download or read book Risk Management the Nuclear Liabilities of British Energy Plc written by Great Britain. National Audit Office and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 59 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: British Energy's eight nuclear stations generate 20 per cent of the electricity used in England and Wales, and half that used in Scotland. When privatised in 1996, the company was required to discharge its nuclear duties from its own resources, whilst the Government remained ultimately responsible for ensuring the safe management or disposal of spent fuel and for decommissioning stations. But in September 2002 the directors declared that the company was not clearly able to meet its liabilities. The Government gave a credit of £410 million to provide working capital for immediate requirements. This report examines the role of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in the period from 1996 to September 2002, addressing the key question: did the DTI in a timely and effective manner identify, monitor and manage the risks posed to the taxpayer by British Energy's nuclear liabilities? It finds that the risks were identified on privatisation, but were not re-evaluated as the energy market changed and affected the company's costs and profits. British Energy itself did not respond effectively to the market changes. The NAO makes a number of recommendations that departments should adopt to improve the way in which they handle privatisations where there are significant ongoing liabilities to the taxpayer.

Download or read book Risk Management written by Great Britain. Parliament House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: British Energy is the UK's largest electricity generator, with a stock of eight nuclear power stations and an annual turnover of over £2 billion. With privatisation in 1996, the Government raised £2.1 billion from the sale, and the company assumed responsibility for all its nuclear liabilities (including the disposal of spent nuclear fuels and decommissioning of power stations). When, in September 2002, the company declared difficulties in meeting these liabilities, the Government (given its overall responsibility for safe nuclear management) granted a £410 million credit to stabilise the company's trading position. A formal restructuring deal was announced in October 2003, which has meant that the DTI is ultimately exposed to British Energy's remaining £3.9 billion liabilities. Following on from previous reports on the topic (produced by the Committee (HCP 242, session 1998-99; ISBN 0102122997) in February 1999 and the NAO (HCP 264, session 2003-04; ISBN 0102927138) in February 2004), this report examines the extent to which risks originally transferred have been accepted back, as well as the DTI's monitoring of British Energy's viability. Findings include that the Government failed to establish proper risk management arrangements and lacked proper information on the company's deteriorating financial position.

Download or read book Risk Management the Nuclear Liabilities of British Energy PLC Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General HC 264 Session 2003 2004 6 February 2004 written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Restructuring of British Energy written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-03-17 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: British Energy was privatised in 1996. In 2002, the price of electricity fell and on 5 September 2002, the Company applied to the Department of Trade and Industry (the Department) for financial assistance. In November 2002, the Department agreed to provide financial assistance with the proviso that the Company's financial arrangements would be restructured. This report deals with the financial aid that the Department gave to British Energy and the terms of the restructuring of British Energy. The Department decided to intervene because, in its assessment, unplanned closures of British Energy's nuclear power stations would have had safety implications and put electricity supplies at risk. The Department took on responsibility for a large proportion of the company's liabilities, to be funded through a Nuclear Liabilities Fund, though there was no up-to-date estimate of those liabilities. (These estimates are to be updated every five years now.) In February 2006 British Energy estimated liabilities at £5,287 million. The restructuring mechanism is for a cash sweep, so that the company contributes more to the Fund when it is doing well. In the 12 months following completion of restructuring in January 2005, the wholesale electricity price rose sharply and the Company's share price more than doubled. The electricity market has, however, proved to be particularly volatile over recent years. The Nuclear Liabilities Fund is left particularly exposed to British Energy's financial and operational performance. Day-to-day responsibility for monitoring various aspects of the Company's performance currently lies with a number of teams within the Department. There remains a real risk that information learned by the different teams is not shared quickly and evaluated and that insufficient staff resources are committed to safeguarding the taxpayer's significant interest. To assist its management of the taxpayer's interest, the Department will need to prepare sufficiently comprehensive contingency plans to enable it to act quickly under the range of scenarios that might arise.

Download or read book House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts Risk Management the Nuclear Liabilities of British Energy PLC written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Privatisation and Financial Collapse in the Nuclear Industry written by Simon Taylor and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A timely contribution and incisive analysis, this is the story of the British experiment in privatizing the nuclear power industry and its subsequent financial collapse. It tells how the UK's pioneering role in nuclear power led to bad technology choices, a badly flawed restructuring of the electricity industry and the end of government support for nuclear power. In this volume Simon Taylor has combined interviews with former executives, regulators and analysts with his own unique insight into the nuclear industry to provide an analysis of the origins of the crisis and the financial and corporate strategies used by British Energy plc. Arguing that the stock market was a major factor in the company's collapse by misunderstanding its finances, over-valuing the shares and giving wrong signals to management and that the government policy of trying to put all responsibility for nuclear liabilities in the hands of the private sector was neither credible nor realistic. The book concludes that failure was not inevitable but resulted from a mixture of internal and external causes that casts doubt on the policy of combining a wholly nuclear generator with liberalized power markets. This book will be of great interest to students engaged with the history of nuclear power in the UK, privatization, regulation and financial and corporate strategy, as well as experts, policy makers and strategists in the field.

Download or read book The sale of the government s interest in British Energy written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-01-22 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: British Energy was the largest independent energy generator in the UK and owner of sites viewed by industry as the most suitable for new nuclear power stations. The Government sold its 36 per cent interest in the company to EDF Energy for £4.4 billion in January 2009. The final cash offer from EDF was 774 pence per share - 10 per cent higher than the valuation by the Shareholder Executive, the Government agency that managed the sale. Movement in energy prices after completion of the sale show that EDF put forward its offer when energy prices were at a peak. The Government's primary strategic objective for the sale was to ensure nuclear operators are able to build and operate new nuclear stations from the earliest date with no public subsidy. There was no binding commitment to build new nuclear power stations as a condition of the sale so it is too early to say whether the sale will enable the Government to achieve its strategic objective. But EDF's acquisition of British Energy has improved the prospect of investment in new nuclear power stations. While the Government no longer has a direct financial interest in British Energy, it remains responsible for funding any shortfall in the future cost of decommissioning British Energy's existing nuclear power stations. The Shareholder Executive did not carry out a formal assessment of the impact of the sale on the risks that taxpayers might have to bear if, for example, the new owner operated British Energy's power stations in a way that required earlier decommissioning.

Download or read book The sale of the Government s interest in British Energy written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-03-24 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report, the 22nd from the Public Accounts Committee (HCP 356, session 2009-10, ISBN 9780215545084), looks at the sale of the Government's interest in British Energy. In January 2009, the Government sold its 36 per cent interest in British Energy, as part of EDF's purchase of the Company. The sale had potentially important implications for future energy security as British Energy, though not financially strong enough to invest in new nuclear power stations itself, owned land viewed by industry as being in the most suitable places for them. The Department did not, however, secure a binding commitment from EDF to build new nuclear power stations. The report adds it also failed to establish whether EDF had previously built any new nuclear power stations without public subsidy. A number of factors, including planning decisions, could result in EDF abandoning its plans to build new nuclear powers stations, with or without public subsidy. The Shareholder Executive hired investment bankers UBS at a cost of £4 million, equivalent to a monthly payment of around £400,000, to advise on sale tactics, assist with negotiations and provide valuations of British Energy. The Committee considers it unacceptable that the Shareholder Executive considered it necessary to spend so much on external advice when it is supposed to possess expertise in these areas. The Government was fortunate in selling its interest in British Energy when energy prices were at a peak. The £4.4 billion sale proceeds were allocated to the Nuclear Liabilities Fund, to put towards the future cost of decommissioning British Energy's existing power stations.

Download or read book The Shareholder Executive and public sector businesses written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-02-28 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite privatisation, central and local government still own or part own a number of companies with a combined turnover of over £25 billion. Reconciling public policy with shareholder value can be problematic and so the Shareholder Executive was established in 2003 to improve the Government's ability to act as an effective shareholder. This report examines the impact of the Executive and whether it is on course to meet its objectives. The overall finding is that, to date, it has generally acted as an effective and intelligent shareholder and has proved value for money. However there issues that need to be addressed to allow the Executive to build on its early work. A number of recommendations are made, including moving it out of DTI and giving it independent status.

Download or read book Nuclear Decommissioning Authority written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Trade and Industry Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2005-05-19 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear Decommissioning Authority : Oral and written Evidence

Download or read book Managing Risks to Improve Public Services written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2004 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years a great deal of effort has been put into improving risk management in departments and in 2002 this was given further impetus when a two year risk programme was launched by the Prime Minister. This report looks at the progress made since the previous NAO report in 2000 (HC 864 1999-2000, ISBN 0105569488). It is based on a survey of the 20 main Whitehall departments, focus groups of 27 departmental risk managers, comparisons with the private sector, academic research and five case studies. The general conclusion is that significant improvement has been made but more needs to be done to make effective risk management a central part of general management processes. The ability to take risks and innovate, keep projects on track and handle complex service delivery needs to be further developed.

Download or read book Recovery of Debt by the Inland Revenue Forty Ninth Report of Session 2003 04 Report Together with Formal Minutes Oral and Written Evidence written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2004 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Inland Revenue collects over £200 billion a year in tax and National Insurance contributions from 30 million taxpayers, ranging from individuals to multinational corporations. The total amount of debt from unpaid taxes stood at £12 billion at the end of March 2004, of which £3 billion was more than a year old. Following on from a NAO report (HCP 363, session 2003-04; ISBN 0102927596) published in March 2004, the Committee has examined the progress made by the Inland Revenue to speed up debt recovery, whether more can be done to encourage prompt payment and the application of good practice in debt management. Findings include that the Department should impose a surcharge on persistent late payers; use other government departmental records to find taxpayers it cannot trace; seek additional powers for enforcing debts similar to those of other tax authorities; and include debt management data in its performance measures.

Download or read book Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Taking Forward Decommissioning written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the 38th report from the Committee of Public Accounts (HCP 370, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780215521668) on the subject of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The NAO produced a report on the same subject (HCP 238, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780102951974). The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) was established in April 2005 with the aim of decommissioning the UK's civil public sector nuclear sites. By December 2007, 14 of its 19 sites had already shut down and were being decommissioned, with parts of Sellafield being cleaned-up. The NDA discharges its responsibilities through contracts with licensed operators at each site. The sites are managed by site licensees, including preparation of decommissioning plans and performing and sub-contracting work. The licensees are owned by four parent bodies. The NDA aims to improve site performance by putting the right to be the parent body out to tender. There is uncertainty over the costs of decommissioning, with an estimate of £73 billion prepared in 2007, up 30% since 2003. The Committee accepts that the legacy of deferred decision making over a period of 50 years is in part responsible for the cost increases, but believes that some of the escalating costs should be avoidable, including short-term changes to the decommissioning programme and the scale of site support costs. Further, the NDA's work has been hampered by the uncertainty in the level of commercial income earned from ageing and unreliable facilities, with the NDA cutting, at short notice, the levels of funding it projected to provide in the 2007-08 period of decommissioning. This has imposed additional costs on the taxpayer, with the NDA providing £31.6 million to cover costs of early contract closure, staff training and redundancy.

Download or read book The Solar Revolution written by Steve McKevitt and published by Icon Books. This book was released on 2014-07-03 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It’s an astonishing fact that capturing all the energy in just one hour’s worth of sunlight would enable us to meet the planet’s food and energy needs for an entire year. The Solar Revolution tells the story of how scientists are working to reconnect us to the ‘solar economy’, harnessing the power of the sun to provide sustainable food and energy for a global population of 10 billion people: an achievement that would end our dependence on ‘fossilised sunshine’ in the form of coal, oil and gas and remake our connection with the soil that grows our food. Steve McKevitt and Tony Ryan describe the human race’s complex relationship with the sun and take us back through history to see how our world became the place it is today – chemically, geologically, ecologically, climatically and economically – before moving on to the cutting-edge science and technology that will enable us to live happily in a sustainable future.

Download or read book Nuclear Energy Regulation Risk and The Environment written by Abdullah Al Faruque and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-09-21 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzing the impact and benefits of nuclear energy on environment, this book examines nuclear treaties in relation to environmental protection, highlights legal framework on non-proliferation and denuclearization, explores treaties on nuclear safety and nuclear security, discusses legal regimes on management of nuclear wastes, assesses the third-party liability regime and discusses the role of IAEA, EURATOM and NEA in regulating nuclear energy. It explores nuclear energy in the context of climate change and sustainable development. This book also examines the international legal framework on notification, assistance and emergency preparedness in the event of nuclear accidents, considers legal aspects of decommissioning of nuclear power plants and main legislative trends on nuclear energy use in selected countries. It also addresses regulatory responses to nuclear energy in the wake of the Fukushima power plant nuclear accident in Japan.

Download or read book The UK Emissions Trading Scheme written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2004 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Scheme is one of the Government's policy measures designed to help meet its commitments under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to secure significant reductions in UK greenhouse gas emissions, in order to address the causes of global warming. Under the Scheme, companies are issued with allowances equal to their target emissions for the year, and at the end of the year must hold enough allowances to cover its actual emissions. A company can choose to reduce its actual emissions below its target (enabling it to sell excess allowances to other companies, or to save them for use in future years), to meet its target, or to buy extra allowances to cover any emissions in excess of its target amount. Following on from a National Audit Office report on this topic (HCP 517, session 2003-04; ISBN 0102927804) published in April 2004, the Committee's report examines the risk management procedures associated with the Scheme, the way baselines for greenhouse emissions were set, the effectiveness of the auction and the market, and the wider benefits to the UK economy.

Download or read book Protecting England and Wales from Plant Pests and Diseases written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2004 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following on from a NAO report on this topic (HCP 1186, session 2002-03; ISBN 0102923590) published in October 2003, the Committee's report focuses on the work of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in trying to prevent plant pests and diseases from entering the country and in managing and preventing the spread of outbreaks when they occur. The main impacts from plant pests and diseases are economic ones, and DEFRA spends £8 million each year on import controls and a further £14 million researching the diagnosis and control of pests. Its work is subject to two main international agreements, as well as WTO requirements that stipulate import controls must have a scientific basis and must not be used as a barrier to trade. Recommendations include that DEFRA should: reassess current inspection targets using cost-benefit analyses; establish a peer review system to provide assurance on the quality of inspections; work with industry and supermarkets to improve food labelling to raise consumer awareness of the UK's standards for plant health; address the inconsistencies in current farmer compensation arrangements and explore the feasibility of alternatives such as insurance or levy schemes.