Discharge Reductions: Value for Money?

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. G. Morley ◽  
J. Waring ◽  
R. Coates ◽  
R. H. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Historical Record ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Value For Money ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Current Context ◽  
Key Drivers ◽  
The Uk

The paper uses the historical record of radioactive discharges from BNFL’s Sellafield reprocessing site in the UK and seeks to identify what have been the key drivers for change, particularly over the past 20 years of significant discharge reductions. The paper examines the current context for ongoing and future discharges from the site, including intergovernmental commitments such as the OSPAR Sintra statement and the developing UK policy framework, together with BNFL’s work with a wide range of ‘green’ stakeholders. The paper outlines the principal components of BNFL’s decision-making processes for discharge control and abatement, and how these interact with the relevant external pressures. It then analyses whether the overall drivers and outcomes align with the declared desire of the UK government to ensure that the taxpayer receives value for money in the new national arrangements for managing legacy wastes from the nuclear industry.

The UK Policy Agendas Project

2019 ◽  
pp. 176-183
Author(s):  
Shaun Bevan ◽  
Will Jennings
Keyword(s):  
Front Page ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
The Public ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Policy Agendas ◽  
The Times ◽  
Rich Data ◽  
The Uk

The UK Policy Agendas Project has collected a wide range of data on the policy agenda of major institutional venues in British politics and on the public and media agendas. This rich data source allows systematic and consistent analysis across institutions, and across countries, extending back over a century in the case of some agendas. The data provide measures of the policy agenda of the executive (the Speech from the Throne) and the legislature (Acts of UK Parliament), along with aggregate survey data about the public agenda (public opinion about the most important problem), media (front-page stories of The Times), Prime Minister’s Questions, and bills and hearings of the Scottish Parliament. Through its extensive collection of data, the project has enabled novel insights into the policy agenda of UK government, how it responds to shocks and external pressures, and how patterns of policy change and stability compare to other countries.

An Assessment of the Safety Factors and Uncertainties in the Fatigue Rules of the RCC-M Code Through the Benchmark With the EN-13445-3 Standard

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Métais ◽  
Stéphan Courtin ◽  
Manuela Triay ◽  
François Billon ◽  
Pascal Duranton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Group ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Safety Margin ◽  
Operating Experience ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Mechanical Equipment ◽  
Safety Factors ◽  
Pressurized Water ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Uk

The RCC-M code [1] is a well recognized international code and provides rules for the design and the construction of mechanical equipment for pressurized water reactors. It is used today for the nuclear industry exclusively, in countries such as France, South Africa and China and it is the basis for the design of the UK EPR to be built in Hinkley Point. The RCC-M code’s fatigue rules emanate from the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code and are hence very similar, albeit they have evolved in their own way over time to include some R&D results and other evolutions. These rules are published by AFCEN which involves a wide range of international organizations from the nuclear industry such as Apave, Areva, Bureau Veritas, CEA, DCNS, EDF, EDF Energy, ONET-MHI, Rolls-Royce and Westinghouse. The EN-13445-3 [2] is a European standard which is mostly in use today in the conventional industry. Its fatigue rules are a compilation of rules from various national European codes, such as the German AD-Merkblatt, the British Standards, the Eurocodes for civil works and the French CODAP. The rules for fatigue are compiled in Chapters 17 and 18 of EN-13445-3 and have been the result of the work of contributors from major European organizations from the nuclear, oil and gas, chemical and mechanical industries: these include, among others, Areva, the Linde Group, CETIM, TÜV, and the TWI (The Welding Institute). Since the beginning of 2015, AFCEN has created a technical Working Group (WG) on the topic of fatigue with the objective of identifying the Safety Factors and Uncertainties in Fatigue analyses (SFUF) and of potentially proposing improvements in the existing fatigue rules of the code. Nevertheless, the explicit quantification of safety factors and uncertainties in fatigue is an extremely difficult task to perform for fatigue analyses without a comparison to the operating experience or in relation to another code or standard. Historically, the approach of the code in fatigue has indeed been to add conservatism at each step of the analyses which has resulted in a difficult quantification of the overall safety margin in the analyses. To fulfill its mission, the working group has deemed necessary to lead a benchmark with the EN-13445-3 standard given its wide use through other industries. Two cases were identified: either the comparison with EN-13445-3 is possible and in this case, the identification of safety factors and uncertainties is performed in relation to this standard; either the comparison is not possible, in which case the overall conservatism of the RCC-M code is evaluated in relation with operating experience, test results, literature, etc... This paper aims at describing the overall work of the group and focuses more specifically on the results obtained through the benchmark with the EN-13445-3 standard.

scholarly journals A frontline service? Nursery Schools as local community hubs in an era of austerity

2021 ◽  
pp. 1476718X2096985
Author(s):  
Kate Hoskins ◽  
Alice Bradbury ◽  
Lewis Fogarty
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Special Educational Needs ◽  
Vulnerable Children ◽  
Nursery Schools ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Current Context ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Frontline Service

Nursery Schools in the UK have been described as the ‘jewel in the crown’ of early years provision because of the quality of education and a wide range of other support services that they provide, particularly for children from socio-economically disadvantaged families and those with complex special educational needs (SEN). In this paper, we explore the role of Nursery Schools in the local community, arguing that they have been re/constructed as a frontline service in the context of austerity policies enacted in England over the past decade. The data presented in support of this argument arise from detailed interviews with 17 staff based in four Nursery Schools. Our data lead us to argue that, in the current context of austerity and cuts to a range of local services, Nursery Schools are filling welfare gaps for families by providing clothing, trips and food voucher advice to families. They are also supporting increasing numbers of SEN children and are described as a first point of contact with state-run services by many, especially minority ethnic and working-class families. We conclude by arguing that Nursery Schools’ funding must be protected so that they can continue to provide support to some of the most vulnerable children and their families in England.

Delivering Value for Money: Trust and Verify?

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alastair Laird
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Management ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Value For Money ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Us ◽  
Near Term ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Value Measurement

Accurate estimates for national Environmental Management remediation work programs are an essential ingredient of ensuring that plans can be adequately funded. They also form the basis of value measurement as the work is executed on an annual or program basis. However, the inherent uncertainties of many of the Environmental Management (EM) and decommissioning tasks, both in terms of the technical challenges faced, options available, end states to be achieved; and the general risks and uncertainties associated with the hazard and its characterisation means that many estimates were always going to have very high levels of uncertainty. In 2002 the United Kingdom Nuclear Liabilities Estimate was quoted as £48Bn when the government restructured the UK civil nuclear industry and set out the basis for forming what was to become the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). By 2005 the NDA had assessed the costs as £56Bn but by 2008 the costs had significantly increased to £73Bn and continue to rise. How does this relate to the more immediate challenges of ‘working off’ the plan and demonstrating Value for Money can be achieved in the near term? In parallel the US Department of Energy Environmental Management Office introduced its ‘Best in Class’ initiative in 2007 — the intention being to tackle underperformance and drive improvements in the baselines and the contractor delivery programs. This paper compares and contrasts UK and US EM program performance issues and covers several interdependent topic areas including: a) Government funding impacts, b) Contractor program estimates, c) Program Controls requirements, and d) Independent assurance requirements. This paper attempts to answer the question “how can governments demonstrate Value for Money in EM”.

scholarly journals Fair and Ethical Trade in Health: Lessons from Surgical Instruments

2009 ◽  
Vol 91 (4) ◽  
pp. 120-123
Author(s):  
Mahmood Bhutta ◽  
Olivia Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Surgical Instruments ◽  
Value For Money ◽  
Ethical Trade ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Uk

The NHS spends £20 billion on procuring a wide range of medical goods every year. Worldwide, the amount traded in products for health care runs into trillions of dollars. With such large sums of money we quite rightly ask about value for money as well as the quality of the goods we buy. But in addition to quality we should, but don't, ask about the conditions under which those goods are made. Unfortunately, recent research has found that some of the products we are using to promote health in the UK may actually be damaging health elsewhere, through unethical labour practices in their manufacture.

An exploratory study of intangibles risk disclosure in annual reports of banking companies from the UK, US, Germany and Italy - Some descriptive insights

2013 ◽  
pp. 81-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Durst
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Capital ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
The United States ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Risk Disclosure ◽  
Related Risk ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Report Data ◽  
Key Drivers ◽  
The Uk

Intangibles are viewed as the key drivers in most industries, and current research shows that firms voluntarily disclose information about their investments in intangibles and their potential benefits. Yet little is known of the risks relating to such resources and the disclosures firms make about such risks. In order to obtain a more balanced and complete picture of firms' activities, information about the risky side of their intangibles is also needed. This exploratory study provides some descriptive insights into intangibles-related risk disclosure in a sample of 16 large banks from the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), Germany and Italy. Annual report data is analyzed using the three Intellectual Capital dimensions. Study findings illustrate the variety of intangibles-related risk disclosure as demonstrated by the banks involved.

ESRC Review

2020 ◽  
pp. 657-698
Author(s):  
Simeon J. Yates ◽  
Jordana Blejmar
Keyword(s):  
Social Research ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
Levels Of Automation ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Technological World ◽  
Ways Of Being

Two workshops were part of the final steps in the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) commissioned Ways of Being in a Digital Age project that is the basis for this Handbook. The ESRC project team coordinated one with the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (ESRC-DSTL) Workshop, “The automation of future roles”; and one with the US National Science Foundation (ESRC-NSF) Workshop, “Changing work, changing lives in the new technological world.” Both workshops sought to explore the key future social science research questions arising for ever greater levels of automation, use of artificial intelligence, and the augmentation of human activity. Participants represented a wide range of disciplinary, professional, government, and nonprofit expertise. This chapter summarizes the separate and then integrated results. First, it summarizes the central social and economic context, the method and project context, and some basic definitional issues. It then identifies 11 priority areas needing further research work that emerged from the intense interactions, discussions, debates, clustering analyses, and integration activities during and after the two workshops. Throughout, it summarizes how subcategories of issues within each cluster relate to central issues (e.g., from users to global to methods) and levels of impacts (from wider social to community and organizational to individual experiences and understandings). Subsections briefly describe each of these 11 areas and their cross-cutting issues and levels. Finally, it provides a detailed Appendix of all the areas, subareas, and their specific questions.

Punk as Folk: Continuities and Tensions in the UK and Beyond

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pete Dale
Keyword(s):  
Folk Music ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Collective Creativity ◽  
Living Tradition ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk

Numerous claims have been made by a wide range of commentators that punk is somehow “a folk music” of some kind. Doubtless there are several continuities. Indeed, both tend to encourage amateur music-making, both often have affiliations with the Left, and both emerge at least partly from a collective/anti-competitive approach to music-making. However, there are also significant tensions between punk and folk as ideas/ideals and as applied in practice. Most obviously, punk makes claims to a “year zero” creativity (despite inevitably offering re-presentation of at least some existing elements in every instance), whereas folk music is supposed to carry forward a tradition (which, thankfully, is more recognized in recent decades as a subject-to-change “living tradition” than was the case in folk’s more purist periods). Politically, meanwhile, postwar folk has tended more toward a socialist and/or Marxist orientation, both in the US and UK, whereas punk has at least rhetorically claimed to be in favor of “anarchy” (in the UK, in particular). Collective creativity and competitive tendencies also differ between the two (perceived) genre areas. Although the folk scene’s “floor singer” tradition offers a dispersal of expressive opportunity comparable in some ways to the “anyone can do it” idea that gets associated with punk, the creative expectation of the individual within the group differs between the two. Punk has some similarities to folk, then, but there are tensions, too, and these are well worth examining if one is serious about testing out the common claim, in both folk and punk, that “anyone can do it.”

scholarly journals A Delphi Study Investigating Clinicians’ Views on Access to, Delivery of, and Adaptations of MBCT in the UK Clinical Settings

Mindfulness ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Williams ◽  
Samantha Hartley ◽  
Peter Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Delphi Study ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Clinical Settings ◽  
Training Support ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Complex Decision Making ◽  
Complex Decision ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Clinical Populations

Abstract Objectives Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a well-evidenced relapse-prevention intervention for depression with a growing evidence-base for use in other clinical populations. The UK initiatives have outlined plans for increasing access to MBCT in clinical settings, although evidence suggests that access remains limited. Given the increased popularity and access to MBCT, there may be deviations from the evidence-base and potential risks of harm. We aimed to understand what clinicians believe should be best clinical practice regarding access to, delivery of, and adaptations to MBCT. Methods We employed a two-stage Delphi methodology. First, to develop statements around best practices, we consulted five mindfulness-based experts and reviewed the literature. Second, a total of 59 statements were taken forward into three survey rating rounds. Results Twenty-nine clinicians completed round one, with 25 subsequently completing both rounds two and three. Forty-four statements reached consensus; 15 statements did not. Clinicians agreed with statements regarding sufficient preparation for accessing MBCT, adherence to the evidence-base and good practice guidelines, consideration of risks, sufficient access to training, support, and resources within services, and carefully considered adaptations. The consensus was not reached on statements which reflected a lack of evidence-base for specific clinical populations or the complex decision-making processes involved in delivering and making adaptations to MBCT. Conclusions Our findings highlight the delicate balance of maintaining a client-centred and transparent approach whilst adhering to the evidence-base in clinical decisions around access to, delivery of, and adaptations in MBCT and have important wide-reaching implications.

scholarly journals An exploration of migrant women’s perceptions of public health messages to reduce stillbirth in the UK: a qualitative study

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasina Stacey ◽  
Melanie Haith-Cooper ◽  
Nisa Almas ◽  
Charlotte Kenyon
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Perinatal Mortality ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Health Messages ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Public Health Messages ◽  
Associated Risk Factors ◽  
The Uk

Abstract Background Stillbirth is a global public health priority. Within the United Kingdom, perinatal mortality disproportionately impacts Black, Asian and minority ethnic women, and in particular migrant women. Although the explanation for this remains unclear, it is thought to be multidimensional. Improving perinatal mortality is reliant upon raising awareness of stillbirth and its associated risk factors, as well as improving maternity services. The aim of this study was to explore migrant women’s awareness of health messages to reduce stillbirth risk, and how key public health messages can be made more accessible. Method Two semi-structured focus groups and 13 one to one interviews were completed with a purposive sample of 30 migrant women from 18 countries and across 4 NHS Trusts. Results Participants provided an account of their general awareness of stillbirth and recollection of the advice they had been given to reduce the risk of stillbirth both before and during pregnancy. They also suggested approaches to how key messages might be more effectively communicated to migrant women. Conclusions Our study highlights the complexity of discussing stillbirth during pregnancy. The women in this study were found to receive a wide range of advice from family and friends as well as health professionals about how to keep their baby safe in pregnancy, they recommended the development of a range of resources to provide clear and consistent messages. Health professionals, in particular midwives who have developed a trusting relationship with the women will be key to ensuring that public health messages relating to stillbirth reduction are accessible to culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

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