Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of job losses at Rolls Royce on the retention of key engineering skills in the Bristol region.

Rolls-Royce has announced plans to reduce its global headcount to secure its competitiveness in a challenging global market. The company is now in consultation with their workforce representatives about where and how these reductions will be made, although their intention is to achieve these on a voluntary basis

It is not yet clear where jobs will be lost or how many UK employees might be affected. However, we are in regular contact with Rolls-Royce and will be working with them to mitigate the impact on the individuals affected, including any who may be based in the Bristol region. Rolls-Royce will use the Talent Retention Solution which has been jointly developed by Government and industry and which matches skilled engineers with employers looking for talent. This scheme has a successful track record of redeploying engineering talent, most recently with BAE Systems.