Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reasons behind the rise in notifications of security incidents to the Office for Nuclear Regulation in 2021, to more than double than the number in 2018.

Nuclear security is a top priority for the Government and all civil nuclear operators are answerable to the independent Office for Nuclear Regulation, which enforces robust security requirements and reporting obligations. The vast majority (80-90%) of the incidents reported were minor breaches of operators’ arrangements and ONR’s analysis indicates that the rise reflects improvements in security awareness, culture and reporting, rather than a decline. ONR strongly encourages operators to report all minor matters as this provides the regulator with rich regulatory intelligence and enables trend monitoring.