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Modernising Logistics Provision

The Fleetlands aircraft repair yard in Gosport has been rationalised and reorganised time and again, but we have always drawn confidence from the fact that excellent facilities, combined with a loyal and skilled work force, will provide continuity for the yard’s future. It has taken the present Government to prove that wrong. The Minister said that there was overcapacity in aircraft repair at present, but how can he be completely confident that it will continue, and what will he do if he finds that overcapacity has not continued and that we are short of capacity? I challenge him to say, in the context of modernisation, that the work force has failed fully to co-operate with any of the many changes imposed on the Fleetlands aircraft yard. What have they failed to do and why have they been put in this position? Finally, so many changes have been announced that I believe that the work force will not accept this harsh judgment without having the opportunity to challenge it by talking to the Minister. Will he agree to a meeting and prove to us that the facts that he has given to underpin his judgment are correct?