ONR background

The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) was formed on 1 April 2011, as an Agency of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), pending relevant legislation to create ONR as a statutory corporation.  In February 2011, a written ministerial statement announced the Government’s intention to bring forward legislation to create a new statutory body outside of the HSE to regulate the nuclear power industry.

ONR brings together the safety and security functions of HSE’s former Nuclear Directorate, including Civil Nuclear Security and the UK Safeguards Office, which transferred in 2007 from Department for Trade and Industry, and the Radioactive Materials Transport team, previously within Department for Transport.

ONR will become a single, integrated regulator that is responsible for the many, often rapid changes which impact on how we regulate the nuclear industry.

• Find out more about the transformation of ONR.

What we do

Our mission is Securing the protection of people and society from the hazards of the nuclear industry.  To do this, we must achieve three key outcomes:

• A nuclear industry that has a culture of continuous improvement and sustained excellence in operations.
• All of our stakeholders value our work.
• A nuclear industry that controls its hazards effectively

How we do it

ONR sets out site licence conditions that each licensee must comply with in different ways; such as, with a safety case to meet a stage in the plant’s life, or with arrangements and procedures to meet a license condition. The conditions set out the general safety requirements to deal with the risks on a nuclear site. 

ONR seeks to maintain and improve safety standards for work with ionising radiations at licensed nuclear sites. It does so through its licensing powers by assessing safety cases and inspecting sites for licensing compliance. It sets national regulatory standards and helps to develop international nuclear safety standards.

Although ONR has most of the expertise it needs to form its own judgements, it uses consultants and has a nuclear safety studies programme geared to its own needs. These give ONR an independent source of specialist advice. ONR can also call on specialists in other parts of HSE. It uses this wide range of contacts to help with its assessment and inspection work and to gain data and information about faults and operating experiences world-wide. Its consultants come from universities, engineering firms and national organisations, such as TWI and the British Geological Survey.

• Find out more about our work

Legal framework and regulations

• Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 – Employers are responsible for ensuring the safety of their workers and the public.
• Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (NIA) – A site cannot have a nuclear plant unless the user has been granted a site licence by ONR.  Only a corporate body can hold such a licence.
• Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999 – Provides for protection of workers in all industries from ionising radiations and by the general health and safety regulation which ONR also enforces at nuclear sites.
• Nuclear Industries Security Regulations 2003 – ONR Civil Nuclear Security (CNS) conducts its regulatory activities, approving security arrangements within the industry and enforcing compliance under the authority of these regulations.

Other regulators

Environment Agency

An Statement of Intent, signed by the Director General of HSE and the Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, provides an explanation of the responsibilities for nuclear safety and environmental regulation on and around nuclear sites and the ways in which the two regulators carry out their regulatory activities.  A joint report called Working Together outlines the work that both regulators have done to follow up the statement of intent.

ONR has memorandums of understanding with the Environment Agency and Scottish Environment Protection Agency

• Environment Agency
• Scottish Environmental Protection Agency