The Sellafield Product and Residue Store Retreatment Plant being delivered by the Programme and Project Partners is reaping the benefits of 4D Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology, with the introduction of a second twin ‘BIM cave’ in the project team’s Warrington office.

This follows the introduction of the project’s first BIM cave earlier this year on the Sellafield site.

BIM is a process for creating and managing a digital representation of the physical elements of the project and the information associated with those objects.

The 2 BIM caves and 4D modelling capability bring important benefits to one of Sellafield’s largest ever construction projects, the benefits include greater collaboration to improve project scheduling, planning, communication and enhanced project visualisation.

Steve Harnwell, Sellafield Product and Residue Store Retreatment Plant, delivery director, said:

Increasing our BIM capability enhances the project’s daily ‘line of sight’ planning by improving the connection between our team members in Cumbria and Warrington to visualise the project plan and build sequencing.

We can be looking well ahead of where we are with construction today, reducing risks, the potential for costly delays and we’re already safely accelerating construction in some areas.

There are also significant safety benefits, we now have a live camera feed from the site which means our team members and stakeholders can see what’s going on from the safety of the office, allowing us to avoid the physical risks associated with being on a construction site.

We’re continuing to upskill members of the team on the technology which will benefit every phase of the project lifecycle, even long after the build is complete and operational.

The primary use of the BIM cave on the project to date has been its use with the 4D model which combines the 3D models created throughout the preliminary and detailed design phases of the project, with schedule information.

The model, which is now live linked between the project’s Sellafield site and Warrington offices, and the 4D planning team, is providing real-time updates on construction progress.

Having two BIM caves improves collaboration across the project team, allowing the team to share the project model on and off the Sellafield site, coordinate planning and build sequencing and ensuring all stakeholders have an immersive insight into the project at any time.

The four directors were disqualified after they all secured bounce back loans before dissolving their companies to avoid paying their liabilities back.

In the most recent case, Sirfraz Ahmad, from Leeds, was disqualified for 10 years after he exaggerated his turnover to secure a higher value bounce back loan he wasn’t entitled to.

Instead of using the government-backed loan to support the business, Food Box Leeds Limited, Sirfraz Ahmad squandered £25,000 to repay family members.

Sirfraz Ahmad joins Max Hadley, Lewis Wright and Jake Joynt, on the disqualification register after the Insolvency Service used new powers to tackle unscrupulous directors who dissolve companies to avoid paying their liabilities.

The Insolvency Service has powers to investigate directors of companies that enter a form of insolvency, including administration and liquidation. The Insolvency Service may also be instructed to investigate live companies where there is evidence of wrongdoing.

The Rating (Coronavirus) and Directors Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Act, which became law in December 2021, extends the Insolvency Service’s investigatory powers, on behalf of the Business Secretary, to directors of dissolved companies.

If misconduct is found, directors can face sanctions including being disqualified as a company director for up to 15 years or, in the most serious of cases, prosecution.

Business Minister Lord Callanan said:

The government provided unprecedented support to businesses to help them through the pandemic, but unfortunately a minority of people abused this support for personal gain.

We have been clear that we will not tolerate those who seek to defraud the taxpayer, which is why we introduced tough new powers which have allowed the Insolvency Service to disqualify directors for dissolving their companies, to avoid repaying their bounce back loans.

Consultant Lewis Wright received a £50,000 loan in June 2020 despite his company having stopped trading the previous year. Lewis Wright received the maximum loan amount after he inflated turnover before paying himself just over £47,000. He is disqualified for 12 years.

Max Hadley, director of Prestige Building Works and railway engineer, received a 10-year ban after he secured a £20,000 bounce back loan before spending £18,000 on payments not connected to the building firm.

And Jake Joynt received a 7-year disqualification after he received a £15,000 bounce back loan before spending £13,000 of it for personal use.

All four directors are banned from directly, or indirectly, becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.

The Insolvency Service is considering recovery of the bounce back loan funds by using legal powers to seek Compensation Orders against the directors where appropriate.

Billions of harmful plastic bags have been stopped from blighting our towns and countryside thanks to the single-use carrier bag charge, new figures reveal today (29 July).

The 5p charge was introduced in supermarkets in 2015 and since then usage at the main retailers has dropped by a staggering 97%. Meanwhile, over £200 million has been voluntarily donated by retailers to good causes in that time.

As a result of the charge, the average person in England now buys around three single-use carrier bags a year from the main supermarkets, compared with around 140 in 2014.

The charge was last year increased to 10p and extended to all businesses. This has helped further bring the number of bags used down by over 20% from 627 million in 2019/20 to 496 million in 2021/22.

Environment Minister Steve Double said:

Our plastic bag charge has ended the sale of billons of single-use bags, protecting our landscapes and ensuring millions of pounds is redistributed to worthy causes.

There is much more to do to tackle the problem of plastic waste. That is why we are building on our single-use plastic bans and introducing the deposit return scheme for bottles to fight back against littering and drive up recycling rates.

The number of single-use carrier bags reported by the main retailers was 197 million in 2021/22, down from 271 million in 2019/2020, the previous comparable year* – a reduction of 27%. This is a huge drop from the 7.6 billion used in 2014 before the charge was introduced.

In 2021/22, retailers donated £10 million to good causes in education, arts, heritage, sports, environment, health, charity or volunteering sectors, or causes chosen by customers and staff.

Adam Herriot, Sector Specialist, Resource Management, WRAP said:

Flexibles remain one of the most common plastics in our bins, but just like pots tubs and trays we’re now at a point where the tide is turning on flexible plastics. Today, nearly 5,000 stores nationwide have front of store collections where people can drop off their unusable bags once they reach their end of life.

So not only do we have less single-use shopping bags to worry about, we have somewhere convenient to put them when we go shopping to make sure they are recycled.

This builds on the government’s action to turn the tide on plastic waste.

This year we introduced a world-leading plastic packaging tax, while our deposit return scheme will ensure billions more drinks bottles and cans are returned to shops and recycled.

We have already banned microbeads in rinse-off personal care products and restricted the sale of plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds.

We have consulted on banning single use plastic cutlery, plates and certain types of polystyrene cups, and are also looking at evidence on other problematic single use plastics – including wet wipes.

*It is important to note that the data for 2020/21 cannot be directly compared with other years, due to unique circumstances relating to the Covid-19 pandemic.