British Rail Workshops (Hansard, 16 March 1987)

§ 1. Mrs. Dunwoody
asked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will have urgent talks with the chairman of British Rail about the concentration of repair work in the regional depots, and the work available to British Rail Engineering Limited, Crewe in the light of the accelerated redundancies.

§ The Secretary of State for Transport (Mr. John Moore)
The allocation of repair work between regional depots and British Rail Engineering Limited is a management matter for the British Railways Board.

§ Mrs. Dunwoody
Is the Secretary of State aware that that extraordinarily distancing reply will do nothing to satisfy the interests of those of my constituents who are now told that they will be faced with redundancies, not in tens, but in hundreds? If the right hon. Gentleman does not intend to support British Rail workshops, he should now make that plain. We cannot afford to lose work in the workshops.

§ Mr. Moore
It was not a distancing reply; it accurately described the proper relationship between the management of British Rail, BREL and the Government. Obviously, I would regret further job losses, and I know that the hon. Lady will be concerned about her constituents. She, like others, should also be concerned to argue the case for British Rail beyond this sector. For example, it would be pleasant for her constituents if she were unequivocally to support British Rail with regard to the Channel tunnel.

§ Mr. Coombs
Is it not time that the news from BREL was about job creation rather than about job losses? Would not the most positive measure that the Government could take be to prepare British Rail Engineering Limited for the private sector so that, like Jaguar, it could create new jobs instead of laying people off? It might then follow in the footsteps of the Great Western Railway, which was at its greatest when it was in the private sector.

§ Mr. Moore
The Government cannot make any comment on privatisation. No decision has been taken on whether, when or how BREL could be privatised. The Government have a lot of other things to do at the moment. My hon. Friend should be commended for the way that he has handled the problems of ex-BREL employees in his constituency and for the work that he has created as a consequence.

§ Mr. Anderson
The Minister will know that much of British Rail's rolling stock is in poor condition. A programme of refurbishment is precisly what BREL is good at, and it is very labour intensive. Will he, with the management of British Rail, stress the importance, in job-creation terms, of that refurbishment programme?

§ Mr. Moore
The hon. Gentleman is right about the importance of refurbishment, but he would want me to remind the House that the £2 billion investment programme over the next five years for British Rail includes £716 million for locomotives and rolling stock. That is a sizeable re-equipment and refurbishing programme.