Corporate report: Cefas: Civil Service People Survey 2017

The survey shows responses by theme:

  • leadership and managing change
  • involvement in work
  • management
  • team
  • learning and development
  • inclusion and fair treatment
  • pay and benefits



Corporate report: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs single departmental plan

Updated: Added the May 2018 version of the plan.

Our single departmental plan sets out our objectives and how we will achieve them.




News story: Brakes are off as reactor clean-up moves forward

Engineers also used the wheels from a kitchen can opener, attached to the handbrake, to help steer a camera inside the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) for a survey inside the plant.

Conditions inside the reactor make it impossible for workers to access, meaning photographs taken by the piece of kit help in understanding how best to go about dismantling the redundant facility.

Chris Irwin, Senior Design Engineer, came up with the innovative concept. He said:

I was opening a can of beans at home and realised that the cutting wheel of a can opener was exactly what was needed to make the required diamond-shaped wheel.

I bought four of them and took the wheels off. The camera needed to be guided over obstacles within the reactor, so we realised the incremental nature of the clicks on a handbrake would give us the precise control that we needed.

This is the latest in a long line of novel approaches developed by the company’s workforce, with blu-tack and Cillit Bang among the everyday items that have previously been used to help deliver safe and cost-effective clean-up on behalf of the site’s owner, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

We are delivering one of the most challenging closure programmes in Europe, but this is another example where innovative, simple solutions prove critical in safely delivering complex projects.

PFR is one of three reactors at the former centre of fast reactor research. It was closed down in 1994, 20 years after it began producing power.




Notice: PE30 4LR, Greenyard Frozen UK Limited: environmental permit application advertisement

The Environment Agency consults the public on certain applications for waste operations, mining waste operations, installations, water discharge and groundwater activities. The arrangements are explained in its Public Participation Statement

These notices explain:

  • what the application is about
  • how you can view the application documents
  • when you need to comment by

The Environment Agency will decide:

  • whether to grant or refuse the application
  • what conditions to include in the permit (if granted)



Notice: HU19 2BZ, Mr and Mrs Kirkwood: environmental permit application advertisement

The Environment Agency consults the public on certain applications for waste operations, mining waste operations, installations, water discharge and groundwater activities. The arrangements are explained in its Public Participation Statement

These notices explain:

  • what the application is about
  • how you can view the application documents
  • when you need to comment by

The Environment Agency will decide:

  • whether to grant or refuse the application
  • what conditions to include in the permit (if granted)