UK Steel Industry

Debate between Lilian Greenwood and Stephen Doughty

Wednesday 3rd December 2014 Westminster Hall

[Stephen Doughty]

I wholeheartedly agree; I was disappointed by the Ministers’ response. Like many others here, I saw a glimmer of hope when the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills responded to a question on that from my hon. Friend the Member for Hartlepool, who is sitting here. The right hon. Gentleman said that there would potentially be an inquiry into the testing process of rebar steel. However, since then we have been told—not only publicly, but in answer to parliamentary questions and informally—that the Secretary of State misspoke, and the executive director of CARES has said that it has not been contacted by the Government.

I hope that the Secretary of State did not misspeak, but if he did, perhaps the Minister can clarify the situation. More importantly, will such an inquiry be considered? Ultimately, people want to see one because they want to know that the steel products being used are safe, sustainable and responsibly sourced.

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making a powerful case. Given that Network Rail is due to invest billions of pounds in track renewals and that major rail infrastructure such as Crossrail, High Speed 2 and possibly Crossrail 2 are coming up, is it not shocking that the future of Tata’s long products steelworks at Scunthorpe, which I have visited and produces much of the UK’s high quality rail, is so uncertain?

[Stephen Doughty]

My hon. Friend makes a crucial point about not just the industry, but the crucial infrastructure projects, especially in transport, that it supports. It is crucial that we get that right.

I mentioned Celsa’s contribution to the Crossrail project. The only responsible sourcing scheme in the UK that guarantees cradle-to-grave traceability for construction steel products is BS 6001, which was crucial to Crossrail. Will the Minister say whether the Government intend to ensure that all public projects apply the same standard in a timely fashion?

Ultimately, each of the issues and concerns that we have raised can be considered on its own, but there is an increasingly apparent need for a detailed, workable industrial strategy for metals, including steel. The Minister might jump to his feet in a moment and cite the development of a UK metals strategy as showing that the Government are on the case, but by all accounts, that is still in its early development stages and is not even guaranteed to receive official backing, despite being funded by BIS.

Indeed, we are more than four and a half years into a Government who chose not to include the metals industry among their sector-specific industrial strategy and who now, quite frankly, are playing catch-up. We have talked about procurement and other investment decisions, but the UK cannot afford to lose out on major public infrastructure projects, as Community made clear was the case with the £790 million contract to supply steel for the new Forth road bridge. Tata steel’s plant just down the road could have supplied more than one third of the required steel, but instead the contract went to producers in China, Poland and Spain.