25. The main legislation governing the safety of employees and the general public at nuclear installations is the Health and Safety at Work etc Act (Reference 7), and its associated relevant statutory provisions which include parts of the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (Reference 1) and the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1985 (Reference 3). Under the Nuclear Installations Act, no site may be used by persons other than the Crown for the purpose of installing or operating any nuclear installation unless a nuclear site licence has been granted by the Health and Safety Executive and is currently in force. HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate is that part of HSE responsible for administering this licensing function.
26. The Health and Safety at Work Act places the general duty on employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of all their employees and also to ensure that people not in their employment are, so far as is reasonably practicable, not exposed to risk. The Act empowers the Executive to appoint inspectors having wide legal powers to ensure compliance with safety regulations. HSE Inspectors are appointed under these provisions. The Ionising Radiation Regulations impose duties on employers to protect employees and other persons against ionising radiation arising from work with radioactive substances and other sources of ionising radiation.
27. Section 4 of the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 provides the Health and Safety Executive with powers to attach to a nuclear site licence:
'such conditions as may ....... be necessary or desirable in the interests of safety, whether in normal circumstances or whether in the event of any accident or emergency on the site .....'. [Nuclear Installations Act, Section 4(1)]
28. The conditions attached to the site licences of all of the licensed nuclear sites in the UK have been standardised. A set of 35 conditions is attached to each licence and these are reproduced in Appendix 4 of Notes for Applicants (Reference 4). They deal amongst other things with:
29. These conditions require the Licensee to have arrangements to address the key safety activities associated with all the operations of a nuclear installation. In effect they encompass the arrangements for managing safety. Failure to comply with these conditions is a criminal offence.
30. Section 1.3 of this report identifies some of the principal references which are used to judge the safety of nuclear installations. They set out our expectations for nuclear Licensees and hence are directly relevant to this audit. Of special relevance to this work is the requirement for the Licensee to be 'in control' and be an 'intelligent customer' for work and services provided by others.
31. The key point, which represents a common thread through this report, is that the Nuclear Installations Act (Reference 1) requires that the Licensee shall be the user of the site, and NII interprets the user as the corporate body which:
'is in day to day control of the site, process and activities and whose staff manage the operation of the plant'. [Notes for Applicants, Ref 4, paragraph 40]
32. This requirement is derived from duties contained in the Nuclear Installations Act which stem from the absolute and no-fault liability of nuclear Licensees to meet (up to defined limits) the costs of any injury to persons or damage to property arising as a result of any nuclear occurrence connected with their licensed sites. Licensees cannot legally pass these liabilities on to others, and hence must be able to demonstrate that they are in control of activities on the licensed site through their own staff. This does not rule out the use of contractors, but in order to be in control, the Licensee should be able amongst other things to demonstrate the ability to be an intelligent customer for any goods or services supplied by others.
33. It should be emphasised that being an intelligent customer (in terms of this report) is not a matter of whether the Licensee is able to manage its relationships with contractors in a commercial sense. It is essentially a question of whether there is sufficient competence and knowledge within the Licensee's organisation to understand the safety features of the plant and to set, interpret and ensure the achievement of safety standards. Although the terminology might vary (eg intelligent customer, informed customer, informed client) the principle remains the same. NII's thinking in this area has been developing since Reference 4 was published. Appendix 1 provides further detail on the expectations of the intelligent customer function, as used for guidance in this audit, and also includes a list of published material on the subject.
34. NII also needs to be satisfied that Licensees have an adequate management structure and resources to discharge the obligations and liabilities connected with the holding of a nuclear site licence. We therefore expect, as set down in Reference 4, that a Licensee will have a 'management prospectus' in which it makes a commitment to health and safety and which demonstrates:
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