HC Deb 18 March 1985 vol 75 cc620-1
6. Mr. Robert B. Jones

asked the Secretary of State for Transport when he last discussed the options for contracting out ancillary activities on the railways with the chairman of British Rail.

The Secretary of State for Transport (Mr. Nicholas Ridley)

Last December BR published its new criteria for the supply of support services. At our regular meetings the chairman keeps me informed of progress in applying them.

Mr. Jones

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for that reply. The existence of these criteria will come as a great surprise to most businesses. Will he ensure that the chairman of British Rail spends more time promoting the existence of these criteria than making half-baked proposals for denying second-class passengers access to first-class dining cars?

Mr. Ridley

I do not think that all that my hon. Friend has read in the press about dining cars is true. I strongly support what he said about the need for industry to get to know about these new criteria, because literally millions of pounds worth of business is let out by British Rail, and there are opportunities for firms, for more jobs, for improving the service and for saving money for British Rail, of which I hope the whole of industry will avail itself.

Mr. Flannery

In view of the privisation of certain sections of the Health Service, where money is shamelessly being made out of the elderly and sick—and by some hon. Members — and when people are being put on the dole and work is not being done, can we be assured that any consideration of privatisation of the railway service will be abandoned?

Mr. Ridley

The hon. Gentleman must not ask me about the Health Service. If private contractors can do work for or supply goods or services to British Rail that are cheaper and better, the hon. Gentleman, like every other hon. Member, should be pleased to hear about it.

Mr. Snape

Does the Secretary of State accept that for those skilled tradesmen who formerly worked in British Rail Engineering Ltd. at Shildon, Horwich, and some at Swindon, privatisation has meant only a one-way ticket to the dole queue? When will he get British Rail to invest in the skills of its work force and give us a railway that is similar to railways in the rest of the developed world instead of seeking to destroy it?

Mr. Ridley

The hon. Gentleman is not right. BREL will always be able to tender for British Rail orders that are put out to competition. The main reason for the decline in the work force at BREL has been the high level of investment in British Rail rolling stock, which is of a superior quality and requires less maintenance.