HC Deb 10 April 2000 vol 348 cc36-7W
Mr. Paterson

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will list the information provided to his Department between 1 November and 29 March by(a) BMW and (b) Rover. [117555]

Mr. Byers

The release of this information is a matter for BMW and Rover. Information provided by the Group was received "in confidence"—often being of a highly market sensitive nature. It would therefore be inappropriate for me to divulge the details.

I have however lodged in the House of Commons Library documents covering my correspondence and telephone conversations between Professor Milberg (BMW AG) and Professor Samann (Rover Group) from December 1999 to the date of BMW's announcement to sell elements of the Rover Group.

Mr. Page

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what monitoring was carried out by his Department to ensure that the agreed recovery plan for Rover based on the grant of £152 million was proceeding on schedule. [R] [118067]

Mr. Alan Johnson

[holding answer 7 April 2000]: The start of the R30 project depended upon approval of the grant offer by the EU Competition authorities.

Mr. Page

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what was expected to be the change on the profit and loss account at the time of the announcement by BMW of withdrawal from Rover against the profit and loss account position on which he based his decision to provide a £152 million grant; [R] [118065]

(2) what was expected to be the estimated position on the profit and loss account of Rover at the announcement of sale by BMW against the position on which he based his decision to provide a £152 million grant. [R] [118066]

Mr. Alan Johnson

[holding answer 7 April 2000]: The application for Government RSA support for the R30 project at Longbridge was made in March 1999. Rover's losses in 1998 amounted to £642 million. This was the figure on which the grant decision was based.

BMW's announcement that they were withdrawing from Rover coincided with the announcement of the 1999 results. Rover's losses for 1999 were £750 million.