John McDonnell

“There is significance evidence of low pay and the way that people are discriminated against consistently throughout the outsourcing mechanism. Given all the research that has been done, that is unchallengeable. I want to concentrate on the issue of loss of skills. Under British Rail, when someone joined the railway, they could have the vision that if they were committed and stuck with the organisation, they could secure additional training and rise up the ladder. All the way up, they would be gaining additional skills, but under outsourcing there has been a lack of investment in skills. The precarious work means that we are failing to invest in the next generation and, as a result, we may not have the skills to operate an effective system. When it comes to outsourcing, people might remember that we brought maintenance work back into Network Rail to reintegrate it because there was a lack of skills, the undermining of safety and blood on the tracks. I attended the funeral of a driver in the Southall crash; that tragedy was a direct reflection of the breaking down of individual contracts that were outsourced and the loss of skills that resulted. A joint letter has been published today that was sent to the Secretary of State, signed by the RMT and the National Skills Academy for Rail. In the letter, they call for “a GBR workforce strategy setting out the skills, employment models and supply chain structures needed to build”— as we all want— “a stable, high-capability workforce across operations, maintenance and renewals, including consideration of insourcing where appropriate”. The amendment I have tabled would enable GBR to function and perform its duties in a way that promotes the transfer into GBR of outsourced and subcontracted railway staff. I would welcome a commitment from the Minister to a meeting with him or the Secretary of State to talk about the plans for insourcing. The Government are doing some excellent work on insourcing across a whole range of Departments, but this proposal has the scale to ensure that we fulfil the promise we made about the greatest wave of insourcing. I end by commending the Mayor of London on what he is doing to insource staff. It is a fine example of what the Government could do on a mass scale across the railway sector.”