Consultants And Rail Privatisation

EDM number 1127 in 1993-94, proposed by Brian Wilson on 27/04/1994.

That this House notes the article in the current issue of Management Consultancy magazine, headed On a Fast Track to Fee Income, which predicts that the splintering of BR will provide consultants with a gravy train of considerable length; notes that this prediction is in part based on a projected 2,700 per cent. increase in the Department of Transport's budget for miscellaneous consultancy services; further notes that Sir Christopher Foster, Coopers and Lybrand partner who was formerly adviser on rail privatisation to the Secretary of State for Transport before the Secretary of State for Transport appointed him to the board of Railtrack, is quoted in support of the gravy-train thesis; notes the confident prediction of Ernst and Young senior consultant, Mr Edward Collier, that there are plenty of fees to be earned; suggests that the Secretary of State for Transport should now call a halt to the reckless squandering of public money, which has already seen ú446 million spent on restructuring for rail privatisation, as well as ú300 million on early retirements and redundancies; and believes that the British public would prefer investment in real trains to sponsorship of gravy trains operated by the Government's friends in the consultancy industry.

This motion has been signed by a total of 61 MPs.