Executive summary
Date(s) of inspection:
February 2026
Aim of inspection
The aim of this intervention is for BAESML to provide ONR with assurance that they have established and implemented management systems which give due priority to safety. This is a planned intervention to evaluate the adequacy of implementation of BAESML’s arrangements for:
Licence Condition 17 (1) - Management Systems and the regulatory expectations within ONR’s NS-INSP-GD-017, specifically LC 17(1), focusing on ownership and leadership (Principle 1);
In order for management arrangements to be robustly and effectively implemented, it is essential that an organisation has a positive safety culture. The inspection will include discussions with selected individuals in relevant leadership roles, as well as understand work groups priorities and behaviours to gain an understanding of the safety culture.
Reference will be made to RGP in particular, Safety Culture Definition and Model, as well as the LMfS areas of the Safety Assessment Principles (Safety Assessment Principles (SAPs) | Office for Nuclear Regulation, MS 1-4), and the intent is to understand how the expectation from GSR Part 2 (Leadership and management for safety) “Requirement 12: Fostering a culture for safety Individuals in the organization, from senior managers downwards, shall foster a strong safety culture. The management system and leadership for safety shall be such as to foster and sustain a strong safety culture”. The inspection will follow an established ONR methodology “Methods for assessing culture and diagnosing organisational problems” (td-hoc-gd-001.docx) to sample areas that regulatory intelligence has identified as most relevant.
Subject(s) of inspection
- LC17 - Management systems - Rating: Not rated
- Leadership & Management for Safety - Rating: Not rated
Key findings, inspector's opinions and reasons for judgement made
This inspection aimed to assess how cultural factors influence safety performance at BAESML and to identify any potential areas of drift. It also evaluated the effectiveness of organisational culture initiatives such as Do the Right Thing, Lifesaving Rules, and Leadership training. The inspection was prompted by recent operational incidents and regulatory insights gathered over 12 months, using the Organisational Culture Warning Flags framework. During the inspection areas for further consideration were identified in the following:
- Deviation from Standards and Behaviours (Flag 4):
- Continuous Improvement (Flag 7):
- Leadership (Flag 8):
- Lack of Engagement and Personal Ownership (Flag 9)
This unrated inspection found no legal compliance shortfalls. Overall, cultural aspects were largely satisfactory, with positive perceptions in several areas. BAESML’s Annual Review of Safety actions align well with regulatory observations. Senior leadership demonstrated good awareness of cultural and behavioural challenges and a commitment to improvement.
The report offers targeted advice to BAESML in the form of 12 observations to enhance clarity, engagement, leadership capacity, and learning from events.
Conclusion
This is an unrated inspection and has not identified any shortfalls in legal compliance. Overall, cultural aspects were largely satisfactory, with positive perceptions in several areas. Senior leadership showed good awareness and recognition of the cultural, attitudinal and behavioural challenges that the organisation faces and identified in this inspection. This was witnessed in the discussions held with them, and also with their desire to understand and improve as exhibited in their Annual Review of Safety (ARoS).
BAESML presented their ARoS actions to ONR and DNSR in December 2026. The themes and the actions align to a large extent with the areas recognised by regulators and reported in this Inspection report, including people, competency and training, culture, leadership and behaviours and becoming a learning organisation. Observation 12 concerns how BAESML are checking that the safety culture is being achieved, and delivering the outcomes sought.
The Observations offer advice from ONR to provide opportunities for BAESML to consider for continued learning and improvement, and opportunities to deliver the outcomes sought by the site.