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Review Of The Nuclear Industries Security Regulations 2003

The Nuclear Industries Security Regulations 2003 (NISR 2003) came into force on 22 March 2003, following consultation with the civil nuclear industry. The Office for Civil Nuclear Security (OCNS), part of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), is the security regulator for the civil nuclear industry and enforces these regulations.

The Regulations were designed to provide a clear, unified regime for setting requirements for nuclear security and for assessing compliance with its requirements. As well as strengthening the regime in force at the time, the overall aim was to provide a single, comprehensive legislative basis for regulation rather than to introduce new requirements. The main changes introduced by the Regulations were the direct regulation of the transport of nuclear material (which was previously regulated indirectly through obligations on the nuclear operators) and the inclusion of a very small number of small scale licensed nuclear facilities and other locations where nuclear material is held (which had previously fallen outside formal security regulation).

When the Regulations were laid in 2003, we made a commitment within paragraph 10 of the Regulatory Impact Assessment (see 'Related Documents') to formally review the new regulatory framework three years after its introduction. A review was conducted, closing on 1st December 2006. The results will be published in due course.

Please note that this review does not include the areas already dealt with by the Nuclear Industries Security (Amendment) Regulations 2006, which amends the NISR 2003 to widen coverage over holdings of sensitive nuclear information, as well as to include uranium enrichment software and equipment fully and corrects a minor discrepancy with transport reporting requirements. This was the subject of a consultation, which closed for comments on 17th March 2006.

If you have any questions about the  review,  please contact Joanne Howes by telephone on 020 7215 2757 or by e-mail.