SUPPORT FOR SUBCONTRACTORS TO THE AIRBUS A380 PROJECT

Early day motion 576, tabled 13 December 2001 by Lord Chidgey (Liberal Democrat). Signed by 24 members.

That this House welcomes the Government's decision to provide over ú530 million in development funding support to the Airbus A380 project, recognising that aerospace is one of the United Kingdom's few remaining world class industries, but is concerned that by allocating all the funding support to the prime contractor, SMEs in the supply chain are disadvantaged, unlike in other countries engaged in the project where development funding has been shared between prime contractors and firms in the supply chain with the result that British Aerospace SMEs face losing work and jobs to subsidised competitors; and calls upon the Government to review the development funding support to ensure that either it is shared between the prime contractor and SMEs in the supply chain or that the prime contractor bears the project development costs in full.

Signatures by party: Labour 13, Liberal Democrat 6, Conservative 5.