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2009 Issues Archive
19 August 2009
Print Page
Report into MG Rover collapse to be published
A report into the collapse of MG Rover will be published next month after the Serious Fraud Office said it would not begin a criminal investigation.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said it would publish the independent inspectors’ report, which took four years and cost £16 million, on 11 September.
The Birmingham-based carmaker collapsed in April 2005 with the loss of more than 6,000 jobs after a group of businessmen known as the Phoenix Four bought the company from BMW for £10 in May 2000.
The four executives – John Towers, Nick Stephenson, Peter Beale and John Edwards – have always denied any wrongdoing. But they came in for criticism when it was revealed they had taken out an estimated £40 million in pay and pensions in the five years they controlled the firm.
Lord Mandelson, business secretary, said: “It was important to have clarity on whether or not this was a case the SFO should be investigating. The workers who lost their jobs and the creditors who were owed nearly £1.3 billion by the collapse deserved no less.
“They have waited a long time to see the findings of the report and the way is now clear for us to publish.”
Bert Hill, GMB organiser for the engineering industry in the West Midlands, said it was “no shock” that the SFO was not pursuing a criminal investigation.
He said the union did not hold high hopes that the publication of the report would yield proper answers.
He said his main concern was what would happen to the £10 million put aside in a hardship trust fund for the employees.
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© PE Publishing, 19 August 2009
