§ 6. Mr. Mike Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Industry when he last met representatives of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions.
§ Mr. VarleyI met representatives of the CSEU on 1st July.
§ Mr. ThomasI hope that my right hon. Friend will not misunderstand me if I raise with him the problem—which I am sure was raised with him by the CSEU—of the three shipyards on the north of the Tyne and the current work load there. Is he aware that there are 8,000 employees who depend on new shipbuilding orders? Is he able to give some idea of the work that his Department is doing to bring orders to those yards and to use the intervention scheme as well as the other measures which he has brought forward to help the situation?
§ Mr. VarleyWe are doing everything we can to help the British shipbuilding 1127 industry on Tyneside and other areas where the industry exists. The intervention fund is being used to good effect and has already saved thousands of jobs.
§ Mr. BiffenCan the right hon. Gentleman give an undertaking that British Shipbuilders will be allowed to go about its business and make its own economic judgments free from the kind of grubby regional lobbying that has disfigured the ordering of the Drax B power station?
§ Mr. VarleyThe Board of British Shipbuilders has operational freedom, and I hope that it will be able to pursue its overall objectives within the terms of the legislation which has been passed by this House. It has already made a good start. I am afraid that, here again, the industry faces severe problems. It is a question of getting work from overseas.