§ Mr. GibbTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps he took to establish whether private finance would be available for development of the A3XX project; and what reasons were given for its not being forthcoming. [118259]
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§ Mr. Alan JohnsonAs part of the assessment of the BAe Systems application for launch investment, my Department received independent advice from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC). In their report, PWC looked at the case for Government investment in the A3XX, including the other alternatives open to BAe Systems. Although the details of the report are commercially confidential, the conclusion was that, in the absence of launch investment from the UK Government, BAe Systems would not undertake the A3XX work in the UK. This would have had a major impact on the UK civil aerospace industry, and would have put in jeopardy the tens of thousands of UK jobs which currently depend on Airbus work.