Railway Workshops

HC Deb 28 April 1965 vol 711 cc428-9

24. Mr. Sheldon

asked the Minister of Transport what products he intends to permit to be manufactured at railway workshops.

Mr. Tom Fraser

I cannot say exactly what form the proposed legislation will take.

Mr. Sheldon

Will my right hon. Friend consider the manufacture of any product, whether or not it is in direct connection with the railways, and will he use the criterion of the ability of the railway workshops to compete?

Mr. Fraser

My concern—as expressed in the statement which I made a few weeks ago—is to ensure that these national assets which have been created will be fully used in the nation's interest. It is very possible that the workshops could properly produce some commodities which are not required for railway purposes. However, I think that it would be premature for me at this stage to seek to anticipate what, in the event, might be produced in the railway workshops or in any other workshops of any other nationalised industry.

Mr. Powell

Will the right hon. Gentleman bear in mind that it is in the national interest that the use of assets should be tested by competiton and that this cannot exist between an undertaking which is financed by the Exchequer on the one hand and private enterprise on the other?

Mr. Fraser

It cannot exist under the existing circumstances because at preseent the Railways Board, including the railway workshops, can and do purchase their component parts freely from private industry. But the railway workshops themselves cannot sell any component parts to private industry, even where private industry wishes to make purchases. Surely this is a restriction which should have been removed long ago.

Mr. Powell

Is it the intention of the right hon. Gentleman that in these operations these workshops should not be financed by the Exchequer nor their responsibility for their deficits on operations carried by the taxpayer?

Mr. Fraser

It is the intention and determination of the Railways Board not to use any taxpayers' money to finance a deficit. At the moment the railway workshops are not financedby—[Interruption.] Financing of a deficit by the Treasury—[Interruption.]—they have been authorised—

Mr. Speaker

Order. Hon. Members cannot expect answers to be brief if they are prolonged by interruptions.

Fraser

British Railways were authorised to go ahead with a£17 million modernisation scheme. That scheme has been very nearly completed. I should have thought that it would be the desire of hon. Members in all parts of the House to see that the nation gets value for that£17 million of expenditure.