Written question asked by Baroness Burt of Solihull (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 19 October 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 21 October 2009. It was answered by Ian Lucas (Labour) on Tuesday, 3 November 2009 on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Rover Group: Serious Fraud Office

Question: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills when the team investigating the collapse of MG Rover first notified the Government that there were sufficient grounds for referral to the Serious Fraud Office.

Answer: The Inspectors kept the Department informed of the areas of concern and the potential misconduct that they uncovered during the course of the Inspection. They did not consider that there were specific issues that needed to be referred to the Serious Fraud Office during the Inspection.However, when the final report was delivered it was clear that, when read in its entirety, it raised serious questions as to criminality. In particular, the Inspectors found that members of the Phoenix Consortium obtained unreasonably large financial rewards and that they undertook a number of transactions to allocate assets to companies in the Group other than MG Rover Group and in which MGRG had no interest. The Secretary of State considered that it was important to establish whether a criminal investigation into possible criminal conduct was appropriate before publication of the report. Given the Serious Fraud Office's responsibility for dealing with allegations of this type it was appropriate to refer the matter to them for their consideration.

Secondary information