Cuts in Nuclear Regulation

Starmer faces down green campaigners with nuclear overhaul. Prime Minister

orders ‘rewiring’ of safety and planning system to expand industry. Sir
Keir Starmer is facing down green campaigners as he prepares to rip up the
rule book on nuclear regulation and accelerate the construction of new
power stations. The Prime Minister has ordered a “rewiring” of
Britain’s nuclear safety and planning system, removing the rules and
organisations that have prevented the UK from completing a single nuclear
reactor since 1995. Sir Keir said an expanded nuclear industry was
“simply indispensable” for the UK’s strategic energy independence,
national security and the climate. Under the changes, the civil nuclear
energy programmes will be linked to defence. This will include merging the
Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) with the Defence Nuclear Safety
Regulator (DNSR) by 2028. The overhaul will also make it far easier for the
nuclear industry to win planning consent for new power stations or other
projects – and harder for environmental groups and other protesters to
block them. Nuclear projects will, for example, no longer be obliged to
carry out consultations before seeking planning consent. Alison Downes, of
the campaign group Stop Sizewell C, said: “We believe these sweeping
changes mean bad news for communities, wildlife and safety. “Coupled with
new siting policies and changes to planning rules, local people facing the
prospect of new nuclear will find themselves marginalised as never before.
Precious habitats – which fully deserve so called ‘gold-plating’ –
will be lost forever.” Nuclear regulation is overseen by a variety of
organisations, including the Office for Nuclear Regulation, the Environment
Agency, the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator, and others. A key part of the
plan is to establish a new nuclear commission to be a unified decision
maker across all regulators, planners, and approval bodies and to act as an
arbiter on safety issues. An interim regulator, the Nuclear Regulatory
Implementation Panel (NRIP), will be put in place from this month, holding
its first meeting in June, to give developers a single point of contact. It
will report directly to the Prime Minister and the Energy Secretary.

 Telegraph 13th March 2026 

 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/03/13/starmer-faces-down-green-campaigners-with-nuclear-overhaul/

 UK to speed up nuclear power projects by weakening wildlife protection.
Government will adopt proposals from Fingleton review, to the dismay of
ecologists. UK ministers have promised to speed up the construction of
nuclear power stations, after decades of delays, by making changes to the
planning system including weakening protections for wildlife and national
parks. Following recommendations in a review by John Fingleton, former head
of the Office of Fair Trading, ministers plan to weaken habitat protection
around new nuclear power stations, to the dismay of ecologists. There are
also fears that undercutting Brussels’ habitat rules could cause a
dispute with the EU and make it harder for the UK to gain greater access to
the single market.“The Fingleton recommendations include damaging
proposals that weaken nature protections in England, legal protections that
are otherwise applied successfully across the whole of Europe,” said
Alexa Culver, lawyer at RSK Wilding. “If the Fingleton recommendations
are being brought forward in full, they represent another irresponsible
rollback for nature laws following the blow dealt by the Planning and
Infrastructure Act last year.” The government said it would create a
Nuclear Commission to be a single collective decision-making body for the
sector and merge the Office for Nuclear Regulation with the Defence Nuclear
Safety Regulator to reduce duplication.

 FT 13th March 2026 

 https://www.ft.com/content/82ba8f86-d81d-4e09-adb3-1e482927758d