Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with Hitachi on the job security of the staff at its rail plant in Newton Aycliffe.

Hitachi is not currently consulting on any workforce changes at its train manufacturing site in Newton Aycliffe. Ministers and officials in my Department have met Hitachi Rail’s UK management team several times in recent months and have had several exchanges of correspondence to discuss workload and job security at the company’s Newton Aycliffe site.