Shipbuilding

Lord Mendelsohn Excerpts

Tuesday 14th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Courtown]

My Lords, our shipbuilding industry, as the noble Baroness is undoubtedly aware, is confined mostly to warships. However, we are very successful in some of our export systems, throughout the whole world and not necessarily just to Europe. We are specifically exporting electronics, optronics and weapons handling systems. Current programmes include Australia, Norway, Germany and Poland.

[Lord Mendelsohn (Lab)]

Does the Minister agree with me that maintaining a steel industry with the capacity to supply the shipbuilding industry is essential to the shipbuilding strategy? The long products division of Tata Steel was sold to Greybull Capital earlier this year; long products are essential for shipbuilding contracts and for rail. Can the Minister confirm that the new owners have been offered the range of support that other bidders and Tata Steel have been offered as well?

[The Earl of Courtown]

My Lords, I know that my colleagues and other Ministers have been working as hard as they can to give support to these various projects. I should add that 95,000 tonnes of British steel have gone into the construction of the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier. The Government are doing everything they can to help the industry to secure a long-term viable future and are supporting Tata to find a buyer for its entire UK operations. The steel industry is vital to the United Kingdom.