Prospect National Secretary for Scotland Richard Hardy said

The decision is a body blow to many members who are already seeing significant redundancies as the aircraft carrier programme runs down. This means they will see nothing but a gloomy future ahead. The success of either of the two leading consortia in the 31e programme would have secured significant investment for Scottish shipyards, be this on the Clyde from the Bae bid, or on the Lower Clyde and at Rosyth from the Babcock bid. We should not forget either that other yards across the UK, employing many thousands of our members will be equally impacted by this decision.”

He continued

“When the Westminster Government announced its National Shipbuilding Strategy we were promised a renaissance in UK shipbuilding, and a drumbeat of orders to keep the yards working. Nothing could be further from the truth, we’ve seen the decision to offshore the contract for the 3 complex auxiliary vessels to support our new aircraft carriers and now we see a postponement that means no decision for nearly a year. Lets be blunt this means more redundancies for our members, less capacity for future bids, and a significant impact on the Royal Navy’s capability as we move into the 2020s. Our members no longer believe that the Government values the work they do”

Criticising the decision to release the news as Parliament was breaking for the summer recess Hardy concluded

“For this news to be released the day before the Westminster recess begins adds insult to injury as our members are denied any parliamentary scrutiny of the decision, and our ability to raise our concerns directly with Ministers is severely curtailed, it all adds up to a poor deal for our members in Scotland and across the UK.”