Regulator says additional scrutiny was not required over Hinkley Point C bullying concerns, rejecting an MP’s claim that oversight of the 3.2GW EPR nuclear project in Somerset had been intensified because of workplace culture issues. The Office for Nuclear Regulation maintains that its existing safety and quality assurance regime for Hinkley Point C, including routine inspections of civil works and nuclear island construction, was sufficient without a specific bullying-related intervention. For contractors and designers on UK nuclear sites, the dispute signals that behavioural and HR concerns will be managed largely through existing licence conditions rather than separate technical scrutiny.

The Government Commercial Agency has launched a £4.2bn, four-year cross-government framework for construction professional and advisory services, open to central departments, local authorities and wider public sector clients. The framework is intended to streamline procurement of multidisciplinary design, project management, cost consultancy and technical advisory support for major infrastructure, building and regeneration programmes. Civil and geotechnical engineers can expect more standardised scopes, repeatable NEC-based call-off contracts and stronger pipelines for public sector workload across transport, flood, education and health projects.

Greater regional infrastructure investment under a potential Andy Burnham government must not be funded by cutting London’s capital budgets, BusinessLDN deputy CEO Muniya Barua has warned. She argues that shifting money away from major London schemes—such as upgrades to key commuter rail corridors and strategic road junctions—would weaken national productivity rather than rebalance it. For engineers, the message is that long-term pipeline certainty for both London and regional projects is critical to maintain design capacity, contractor capability and supply-chain investment.