An inquiry into the award of a £6.2bn nuclear decommissioning contract in the UK has called for a change in culture in the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to ensure full and open dialogue, encourage challenge and embrace the delivery of bad news.

The inquiry, led by Steve Holliday, a former chief executive officer of National Grid, said in its final report that individuals at the NDA should be empowered to bring forward concerns. A clear system of identifying the risks, combined with open discussion, should be integral to decision making, rather than “pressing ahead in the belief that doing so accords with the particular leader’s wishes”.

On future procurements, the inquiry said the NDA, a public body established in 2004 to oversee the cleanup of the UK’s nuclear legacy, should devise a transparent, but simplified, set of competition rules, which focus on the substance of what it is looking for, rather than on process.