MoD to face inquiry after awarding huge £1.6bn contract to Spanish-led consortium

An inquiry is to be held into the UK Ministry of Defence decision to award a £1.6 billion ship-building contract to a Spanish-led consortium.

It follows the announcement that a business owned by the Spanish Government will be the lead contractor in a project to build three fleet solid support ships, which will supply munitions, stores and provisions to Royal Navy aircraft carriers, destroyers and frigates.

The cross-party House of Commons Defence Committee has written to Ministers demanding answers to questions such as how many jobs will be created in Spain and where the steel used to manufacture the ships will come from.

MPs on the committee plan to summon witnesses including senior Royal Navy officers to answer questions at a hearing in the New Year.
They include former Defence Minister Kevan Jones who said: “The UK government talks about growing the economy but exporting British jobs to Spain by awarding this contract and undermining the UK shipbuilding industry seems a strange way of doing that.

“No other G7 or European country would procure naval ships from abroad.”

Records held by Companies House show that Navantia UK was created in May this year and is wholly owned by Navantia, S.A., S.M.E SA, which in turn is owned by Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales, a holding company owned by the Spanish government.

Team Resolute also includes shipbuilders Harland & Wolff, which have a shipyard in Belfast, and Bath-based designers BMT.

Ministers say that Harland & Wolff will employ an additional 1,200 people as a result of the deal.

A rival British bid by a consortium called Team UK, which includes British defence company Babcock International Group, BAE Systems and Merseyside-based shipyard Cammell Laird Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders Limited, was unsuccessful.

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