When it last took evidence on Sellafield, the previous Committee was told that major project delivery was improving.32 The NDA told it that “cost forecasting is improving” while the Department said that “for the first time now, the estimates of those costs have begun to stabilise”.33 Even then though, the nine major projects underway were, between them, delayed by 165 months and expected to cost £913 million more than originally budgeted.34 However costs, and delays, have risen considerably since then for the four projects which were two years or more away from completion. These four projects are now expected to cost £1.15 billion more between them than when the previous Committee reported, while each will be delayed by between 58 and 129 months. Sellafield Ltd accepted that £546 million of this cost increase was caused by poor planning and poor contractor performance. It attributed £191 million to delays resulting from the COVID–19 pandemic and higher–than–forecast inflation.35