Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to take any action to persuade Greybull Capital and its associates to contribute any gains made from its (1) investment in, and (2) loans to, British Steel towards reducing (a) the deficit of the British Steel Pension Scheme, and (b) the impact of British Steel's collapse on past and present employees.

The Official Receiver was appointed liquidator of British Steel Limited. In his role as liquidator, the Official Receiver is under a statutory duty to investigate the cause of failure of the company and generally its business, dealings and affairs and has wide-ranging powers to obtain information, material, and explanations.

My rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State wrote to the Insolvency Service on 22 May requesting that the Official Receiver’s investigation not only looks at the conduct of the directors immediately prior to and at insolvency, but also at the investments made in the company, value transferred out of the company and whether any action by directors has caused detriment to creditors or to the pension schemes.