Sue Tibballs

This article is part of the Nuclear Spin project of Spinwatch.

Sue Tibballs is the chief executive of the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation and has a background in campaigns and communications consultancy.

Background

Tibballs was the Parliamentary Labour Candidate for Maldon and East Chelmsford in the 2005 Election. She came second. On her website she describes herself as " a professional campaigner, researcher and writer working largely on issues of equality, environmental sustainability and public ethics".

She has also worked as Projects Director and board member of the consumer think tank, The Future Foundation, for which she undertook work for Nirex. As a freelancer she says she worked for the Co-op Bank, BT, Transport for London and UK Nirex plc. She was an associate member of Demos and served as a Trustee and then Chair of Fawcett, the equality campaign.

Strategic and communications support for Nirex

In February 2005, Nirex documents show that Tibballs had worked with Nirex "for over five years years contributing strategic and communications support". Her work for Nirex has included, in part:

• In 1999, Tibballs wrote a "Nirex Communications Review"

• A year later, she wrote a "Communications Strategy Update"

According to Nirex: "Nirex commissioned Sue Tibballs, an independent researcher, to review events that had happened since 1997 and consider how Nirex could improve its communications and interactions with its stakeholders. The review involved looking at recent events in the media and public attitudes to controversial issues, the House of Lords' review of radioactive waste management and stakeholder dialogues on radioactive waste management and undertaking internal interviews with Nirex staff.

The conclusion was that Nirex should focus its work on three areas:

• Communicating a clear identity as an organisation;
• Building a reputation as a responsible corporate citizen;
• Enabling the public and other stakeholders to engage with the issue of radioactive waste in a mode of rational engagement. The work helped Nirex to develop clear messages about who it is and what it is trying to achieve. These messages are captured in a presentation that is given to people by Nirex staff.

It was also felt to be important for Nirex staff to develop a shared understanding of Nirex's vision and the values it adheres to. A series of workshops were undertaken to achieve this. The report also made recommendations about developing Nirex's Mission Statement, corporate responsibility policy, press strategy, communication materials and stakeholder involvement programme".

• Tibballs appeared at special session organised by Nirex at the BA Festival of Science in 2002 along with David Wild, Anna Littelboy, John Matheison from Nirex, where the participants prescribed "openness and transparency" for Nirex.

• Appeared at the 9th International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management with John Dalton and David Wild from Nirex talking about Corporate Social Responsibility and Nirex. The Future Foundation had been employed by Nirex to examine the issues surrounding CSR.

"In recent years, Nirex has been engaged in a fundamental review of its values, objectives and behaviours. The significant shift to emerge from this review has been a commitment to being a responsible organisation ... The challenge Nirex faces, however, is to understand what relevance and implications the CSR debate has for its work, and its wider commitment to responsibility ...In order to help answer these questions, and to develop a clear position and strategy, Nirex asked the Future Foundation to help facilitate input from consultants and other practitioners who have relevant experience".