To ask Her Majesty’s Government what support they will provide in order to retain skilled engineers who currently work for BAE Systems in Portsmouth within the United Kingdom workforce.

BAE Systems is consulting with employees and the Unions to explore ways of avoiding, reducing and mitigating potential job losses. This will include retraining, redeployment and flexible working arrangements, as well as providing support for employees who wish to retire or seek external opportunities. BAES have a strong track record in this area and it is hoped that many job losses will be mitigated.

The existing UK wide Talent Retention Solution will help match skilled workers to engineering jobs in Portsmouth. At the end of last week (29 November) there were 781 companies registered on the Talent Retention Solution website with 421 vacancies in the South of England.

We are working with Job Centre Plus and Skills Funding Agency colleagues in a local taskforce convened by Portsmouth City Council, which will help support those impacted. The Skills Funding Agency will work with colleges and training providers in the Solent area to ensure that support is available to any employees at risk of redundancy. £2.5m of Skills Support for Redundancy European Social Fund money is available to support this work. In addition, £5m from the “Solent Futures” Regional Growth Fund programme is being used to fund reskilling of affected employees at risk of redundancy, to support them into new job outcomes.

We have also established an industry-led Maritime Forum to advise the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) on future skills needs in the marine sector in that area.

Furthermore, the National Careers Service is available to offer free impartial careers advice to those impacted on updating skills or retraining for alternative employment.