Ast Group

EDM number 621 in 1995-96, proposed by Rhodri Morgan on 14/03/1996.

That this House calls on the Department of Trade and Industry to expedite investigations into the collapse of the AST Group of Aylesbury and the part played in its collapse by its directors and also Patrick Doyle, who although not a director, effectively controlled its affairs and arranged for the liquidation of the bulk of its assets into Firlands Training Ltd. of the Firs, Whitchurch, Aylesbury, and which has since attempted unilaterally to revoke the employment contracts of the training staff, and has sought to backdate the new fixed term contracts so that they purport to run from 27th March 1995 to 22nd March 1996, even though they were not supplied to staff until February 1996; recalls that these training instructors have continuity of employment going back not only to AST, but before that to ASTRA, the company which was the vehicle for privatising the Government Skillcentre network; and therefore calls on the Department to use both its powers under section 447 and via the Insolvency Service to determine whether Mr Doyle and others are fit and proper persons to be company directors.

This motion has been signed by a total of 19 MPs.