Coulport sell-off threatens safety

Coulport sell-off threatens safety

Alan Grey, president of Prospect’s 8,000 strong Ministry of Defence group, has told a mass meeting of members at Coulport weapons depot in Scotland that Ministry of Defence proposals to privatise their work and transfer the majority of staff to a consortium consisting of AWE, Babcock and Lockheed Martin is dogma driven, unaffordable and unsustainable.

Prospect members there are responsible for support to the UK’s Trident missiles. The union believes MOD’s preferred option is unsustainable in the short-term and argues there are direct implications for nuclear safety and for MOD’s ability to act as an intelligent customer for nuclear weapons support if the proposals are implemented.

Grey said: “Coming on top of the recent decimation of nuclear reactor safety staff within the adjacent nuclear submarine base in Faslane, the proposal shows a reckless disregard for the safety of the equipment and processes managed by the two Clyde establishments.

“The Commodore appears to be driven by dogma and the perverse need to cut civil service numbers, even though the cost of delivering the proposal will cost MOD more in the short- term.

“The proposal will not improve sustainability. In 2002, the government of the day part=privatised the Clyde submarine base at Faslane and Coulport. In doing so they split a sustainable single entity into two unsustainable and competing entities.

“Now their solution is to privatise more civil servants in the hope that one of the entities – the private sector company – can be sustainable. This will lead to unnecessary duplication of management, HR practices, career paths and salary scales and create a damaging internal market within the weapons environment.”


  • 06 Jul 2011