Steel Industry (Support)

– in the Scottish Parliament at on 17 March 2016.

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Photo of Clare Adamson Clare Adamson Scottish National Party

5. To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to support the steel industry. (S4O-05680)

Photo of Fergus Ewing Fergus Ewing Scottish National Party

I chair the multi-agency Scottish steel task force, which was convened immediately after Tata Steel’s announcement that it planned to mothball its Scottish steel plants. The task force brings together the company, trade unions, local authorities, Government agencies and local elected representatives. The task force is doing everything within the power of the Scottish Government and its partners to support the continuation of Scotland’s steel industry and a viable future for the steel plants at Dalzell and Clydebridge. We have made significant progress in five key areas—business rates, energy costs, support for staff, environmental matters and procurement—which are all aimed at supporting our ambition to see an alternative operator on those sites.

Photo of Clare Adamson Clare Adamson Scottish National Party

The minister will be aware that I attended a European Commission conference on fuel-intensive industries and heard the concerns of the industry across Europe in the current economic climate of steel dumping and high fuel costs. Does he share my concern that the United Kingdom Government and the European Commission are taking too long to address the concerns of the industry, and that it is about time they took positive action and provided support such as has been demonstrated by the Scottish Government?

Photo of Fergus Ewing Fergus Ewing Scottish National Party

I share Clare Adamson’s concerns. There is a need for urgent action by both the UK Government and the European Union, and we continue to press the UK Government on that. Clare Adamson has pressed all the issues at the meetings of the task force, every one of which she has attended.

Photo of John Pentland John Pentland Labour

Although that is appreciated, the key question is not what the Scottish Government has done but where it is going. It is now more than five months since Tata Steel made its announcement. For the workers, all that has happened is a phased decline with mothballing, and support to help them into other jobs. That was not supposed to be the objective.

When will the Scottish Government look at a plan B to fulfil its guarantee of a future for Scottish steel by whatever means necessary?

Photo of Fergus Ewing Fergus Ewing Scottish National Party

John Pentland also sits on the task force, which is a non-political body, and we have all been working together. I am not sure that I accept his characterisation of the position—for example, several of the key workers who are necessary to restart the plant are currently undertaking a skills course, and their skills are being preserved precisely because there are not many people who know how to operate a steel plate mill. If we had not instituted that pioneering scheme to preserve the key skills that are required to operate a plate mill, it would simply not be practical to reopen the plant. That has been done at the Scottish Government’s behest and at the taxpayers’ expense.

Secondly, our objective remains absolutely resolute: to find an alternative operator to take over the plant and resume steel operations in Scotland. As the First Minister undertook to do, we have left no stone unturned. We continue to do that work, and I am sure that I will engage further next Wednesday with Mr Pentland at the last meeting of the task force prior to purdah.