Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM)
Appointment of Members
Candidate Pack
Closing date for receipt of applications:
9 am - 21st March 2016
Contents / PageHow to make an application / 2
The Commissioner for Public Appointments / 2
How to apply / 2
The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) / 4
About the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) / 4
Roles and responsibilities / 5
Qualities and experience required / 5
Terms and conditions of appointment / 7
Selection Criteria / 7
How we will handle your application / 7
Equal opportunities / 7
Dealing with your concerns / 9
Annexes
Annex A: CoRWM Terms of Reference / 10
Annex B: CoRWM Code of Practice / 14
Annex C: The Seven Principles of Public Life / 19
How to make an application
Thank you for your interest in the appointment of members to the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM). This document contains information about: how to apply for a role, the person specification, the role and responsibilities of CoRWM and its members and the selection process.
The Commissioner for Public Appointments
The Commissioner for Public Appointments regulates and monitors ministerial appointments to public bodies to ensure that they are made on merit after fair and open competition. More information about the role of the Commissioner, the Code of Practice and how to make a complaint about the conduct of a public appointments process is available here
How to apply
If you wish to apply for a role as member of CoRWM, please supply the following by the closing date of 9am, 21st March:
· A short supporting statement (maximum two sides A4, minimum 11 point font) giving evidence that demonstrates how your skills and experience meet the criteria for the role;
· A comprehensive CV setting out your career history and including details of any professional qualifications;
· Equal opportunities monitoring form.
In making an application please note the following:
Supporting statement
The supporting statement is your opportunity to demonstrate how you meet the criteria (both essential and desirable) set out in the person specification, including your respective skill area(s). How you choose to present the information is up to you. However, you should aim to provide specific and detailed examples that demonstrate how your knowledge and experience matches each of the criteria, your relevant skill area(s) and which describe what your role was in achieving a specific result. It will also benefit the selection panel if you can be clear which evidence you provide relates to which criteria. Providing separate paragraphs in relation to each criterion is common practice.
Please ensure your full name, the role to which you are applying and the corresponding reference number for the post are clearly noted at the top of your statement.
Please limit your statement to two pages and type or write clearly in black ink.
Declaration of interests and ensuring public confidence
If you have any business or personal interests that might be relevant to the work of CoRWM and which could lead to a real or perceived conflict of interest were you to be appointed, please provide details as an annex to your supporting statement. If there is anything in your personal or professional history that, if brought into the public domain in the event of your application being successful, may cause embarrassment or disrepute to the organisation, please provide further details in an annex to your supporting statement. Failure to disclose such information could result in an appointment being terminated.
CV
Please ensure your CV includes:
· Full name, title, home address, personal contact telephone numbers and personal email address;
· Brief details of your current or most recent post and the dates you occupied these roles.
Monitoring form
Please complete the monitoring form. Diversity monitoring information will not be seen by the panel assessing your application.
Indicative Timetable
Closing date: March 21st – 9am
Shortlisting complete: End of first week of April.
Interviews held: Weeks commencing 18th and 25th April (date to be confirmed)
Completed applications should be emailed to:
If you cannot apply online, please post applications to:
Andrew Timlin
Hays Executive
Ebury Gate
23 Lower Belgrave Street
London
SW1W 0NT
Tel: 0207 259 8743
If you need any part of the vacancy details in an alternative format (e.g. Braille, large print, audio CD, tape or e-text), please contact Andrew Timlin as detailed above.
The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management
About the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management
The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) provides independent advice, based on informed scrutiny of the available evidence, to UK Government and Devolved Administration Ministers on the long-term management of radioactive waste, including storage and disposal. Its primary objectives are:
· to provide independent evidence-based advice to sponsor Ministers on the Government’s, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA) and Radioactive Waste Management Ltd’s (RWM) programme to deliver geological disposal (excluding Scotland), together with robust interim storage, for higher activity radioactive waste;
· to provide independent, evidence-based advice on other radioactive waste management issues as requested by sponsor Ministers, including advice requested by Scottish Government in relation to its policy for higher activity radioactive waste.
Details of the work in which CoRWM is currently involved, as well as its previous reports and position papers, are available here
CoRWM comprises a Chair and up to eleven members. The Chair and members reflect different backgrounds and are not mandated representatives of organisations or sectoral interests. As part of a cycle of appointments to the Committee, the positions of eleven members become vacant from mid to late 2016.
Details of CoRWM’s role and responsibilities and its ways of working are contained within the Committee’s Terms of Reference at Annex A.
Procedural requirements on members are also set out in the CoRWM Code of Practice at Annex B and the Seven Principles of Public Life at Annex C.
Requirements for Members of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management
Role and responsibilities
Members work, under the Chair’s supervision, to the programme agreed with sponsor Ministers. Members have a collective responsibility to ensure the achievement of CoRWM’s objectives and delivery of its work programme to agreed timescales. Individual members may be appointed by the Chair to undertake specific tasks, for example, leading or participating in sub-groups, drafting papers or representing CoRWM in meetings with the public, organisations who are contributing to the Committee’s work.
Qualities and experience required
We are seeking to appoint new members of CoRWM in order to achieve an overall balance of the areas of expertise listed below. We will expect members to have demonstrable expertise of and a proven track record in, one or more of these areas and be able to demonstrate an understanding of how relevant issues apply across the UK, including the Devolved Administrations.
The successful candidate will, in particular, be required to draw on his/her professional knowledge to provide clear and authoritative insight, challenge and support on the Committee and to contribute to CoRWM’s credibility through strategic level advice and scrutiny.
Skills we are seeking:
· Geosciences including geology, geophysics, geochemistry and hydrogeology
· Geological disposal of radioactive waste
· Intermediate and deep underground radioactive waste disposal concepts and the performance of engineered barriers
· Underground design, engineering and construction
· Nuclear safety, security, safeguards, environmental protection and radiation protection
· Radioactive waste management technology & the operation of nuclear facilities
· Nuclear science & engineering including interim storage of nuclear materials
· Practical experience of regulation in the context of the UK nuclear industry
· Project management and delivery of large infrastructure projects
· Public & stakeholder engagement
· Practical experience of working in or with local government
· Land use Planning
· Nuclear and Environmental Law
· Practical experience of planning law
· Practical experience of the law relating to Environmental Impact Assessment, Strategic Environmental Assessment and National Policy Statements
In addition to demonstrating one or more of these areas of expertise, members will be selected against the following criteria:
Essential criteria
Evidence of having -
· built and maintained good working relationships with experience of working cooperatively and achieving consensus in multi-disciplinary teams, where views may differ, in order to deliver successful outcomes to agreed timescales
· good analytical skills involving evaluating complex issues
· good drafting and communication skills
· ability to communicate and engage with a wide range of stakeholders and the public
Desirable criteria
· operational experience in the nuclear or radioactive waste management fields
· experience of advising on complex issues such as those encountered on major infrastructure projects
Terms and conditions of appointment
Period of appointment
The appointment is initially for two or four years (to be agreed with each member), but further terms may be offered, subject to satisfactory performance assessment and Ministerial approval and in line with the guidance set out in the Commissioner for Public Appointment’s Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies.
Standards
In accepting a position on the Committee, members will be signing up to CoRWM's Terms of Reference, the Committee's Code of Practice and the Seven Principles of Public Life.
Time Input
It is expected that members will spend a maximum of 52 days per year on CoRWM business. This time commitment includes preparing for meetings and travel, some of which may be required in the evening or at weekends. A higher input may be necessary in the initial period of appointment.
Remuneration
£300 per day for a maximum of 52 days per year. All reasonable travel and subsistence costs incurred during the course of the work will be fully reimbursed.
Location
CoRWM members are based all over the UK and are committed to flexible working. Members generally work remotely and make regular use of video and teleconferencing. Committee meetings and work may be conducted at various locations around the UK and there may also be some limited overseas travel.
CoRWM is supported by a small secretariat in the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), London.
Termination
The appointee may resign at any time by notice in writing to the sponsor Ministers. Ministers may jointly agree to terminate the appointment in light of performance, a significant change in the nature of the work or a decision that the Committee, in its current form, is no longer required.
Selection Criteria
The Chair of the Selection Panel will be a senior official from DECC. Other panel members are expected to include a senior official from the Scottish Government, acting on behalf of the Devolved Administrations, the CoRWM Chair and an independent person to provide an external perspective.
During the recruitment process, the Panel will be supported by Hays Executive, who will undertake an initial sift of candidates. The Panel will produce a shortlist of candidates to invite to interview and will conduct interviews to determine which candidates best demonstrate that they have the specified qualities and experience for the role of the CoRWM members. The Panel will then make recommendations to the Committee’s sponsor Ministers, who will decide which candidates they wish to appoint.
Please note that appointments to public bodies are made by competition. It is therefore essential for your application to give full, but concise, information/evidence relevant to the appointment.
Interviews are expected to take place in April 2016 in London. The interview should last in the region of 45 minutes. If selected for interview, candidates will be asked to prepare a five minute presentation, to be delivered without the use of visual aids. We will notify candidates of the topic to be covered in the invitation to interview.
How we will handle your application
We will:
· Acknowledge receipt of your application. Please contact Hays Executive on: 0207 259 8743 if you have not received an acknowledgement within five working days of submission.
· Let you know by email whether or not you have been short-listed. (The sift will take place following the closing date and interviews are expected to take place in April)
· Take up references of candidates selected for interview.
· Notify all candidates of the outcome of their application.
Equal opportunities
We positively welcome applications from all backgrounds, and this appointment will be governed by the principle of public appointment based on merit with independent assessment and transparency of process. The UK Government and Devolved Administrations are committed to valuing diversity in their public bodies and do not discriminate on the basis of age, disability, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, gender re-assignment, religion or belief, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin.
The UK Government and Devolved Administrations are also committed to providing equal opportunities for all public appointment candidates during the selection process, to enable us to select candidates from a diverse pool of talent.
Guaranteed Interview Scheme (GIS) for Disabled Applicants
We guarantee an interview to any candidate who has a disability, as defined by the Equality Act 2010, and who declares their disability in their application, provided that they meet the minimum essential criteria for the post in question, as set out in the job advertisement. The Equality Act 2010 defines a person as being disabled if they have a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
In addition, if you require any special arrangements at interview stage, please give details in a covering letter to enable us to make the appropriate arrangements if necessary.
If you wish to apply under the GIS please complete the GIS form and return it with your application.
How we will manage your personal information
Your personal information will be held in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. You will not receive unsolicited paper or electronic mail as a result of sending DECC any personal information. No personal information will be passed on to third parties for commercial purposes.
When we ask you for personal information, we promise we will: