Oral Answers to Questions

Steve Rotheram Excerpts

Thursday 15th September 2011 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Steve Rotheram (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab)]

1. What assessment his Department has made of the ability of British-based train manufacturers to win contracts for rolling stock.

[Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

2. What assessment his Department has made of the ability of British-based train manufacturers to win contracts for rolling stock.

[The Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Philip Hammond)]

Since privatisation, Bombardier, as the only current UK-based train manufacturer, has supplied the majority of new trains across the UK main line rail and London underground networks, with a combined total of over 4,500 new carriages ordered since 1996. Going forward, there are a number of contracts that the Department would expect Bombardier to bid for, including the Crossrail project for the supply of around 600 carriages, and it is already a pre-qualified bidder. The tender for this contract is due to be issued in 2012. There are also potential future orders for the London Underground deep tube lines.

[Steve Rotheram]

I listened to what the Secretary of State had to say and, quite frankly, I could have predicted his response. Why is he not prepared to do anything to reconsider his disastrous decision to award the Thameslink contract to a company that intends to build these trains in Germany?

[Mr Hammond]

I sometimes get the feeling that I am talking to a brick wall on this subject. I have said it before and I will say it again: the criteria by which the bids were to be evaluated were laid down by the Government in 2008. The criteria have to be followed, although they might not be the criteria the hon. Gentleman would like. We have made a commitment to look at the way we specify the criteria in future public procurements, but on this project it is Labour’s mess and we are landed with it.

Tom Blenkinsop: I am sorry, but the right hon. Gentleman told the Transport Select Committee that there was an option to review or restart the Thameslink procurement process at any time during the year before naming the preferred bidder. Will he now admit that that was a terrible mistake, which has put at risk Bombardier, Britain’s last train manufacturer, and thousands of British jobs down the supply chain?