§ Ms. QuinTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what was the legislative basis for the Government's decision to privatise British Shipbuilders; and what parliamentary approval was either required or given before the privatisation took place.
§ Mr. Leigh[holding answer 20 June 1991]: The legislative authority for the privatisation of British Shipbuilders' subsidiaries is the British Shipbuilders Act 1983. No further parliamentary approval was required for these privatisations, but Parliament was informed on each occasion.
§ Ms. QuinTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the Government's reasons for closing the North East Shipbuilders Ltd yards in Sunderland as opposed to any other United Kingdom yards at the time of the 1988 agreement with the European Commission to reduce Britain's merchant shipbuilding capacity.
§ Mr. Leigh[holding answer 20 June 1991]: The decision to close the remaining NESL shipyards in Sunderland was taken by the Government in December 1988 because no acceptable bids had been received for them. In contrast, sale negotiations for British Shipbuilders' other remaining shipbuilding subsidiaries had by that time reached an advanced stage.
The package notification made in December 1988 to the European Commission of the proposed closure aid at NESL, the proposed terms of sale of the other British Shipbuilders' subsidiaries and forecast British Shipbuilders' results for 1988 and 1989 was to seek the Commission's approval of the overall level of subsidy to British Shipbuilders as conforming to the relevant Community shipbuilding aid ceilings, rather than a specific agreement to reduce United Kingdom merchant shipbuilding capacity.