World In Action, 19 March 1973, The Coal Enquiries

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Hansard 1983

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1983/mar/24/adjournment-easter-and-may-day Mr. Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) In the few minutes at my disposal I want to refer to a long-standing issue that is well known to certain Members of the House who have been involved in the affair. I refer to what some would say is the celebrated case of Alan Grimshaw. For many years, until his death a few days ago, Alan Grimshaw tried to obtain justice in respect of his employment with the National Coal Board and his investigation into the NCB's acquisition of roof supports in the 1960s and 1970s, which culminated in his appearance before the Select Committee on Nationalised Industries in 1973 and 1974. Alan Grimshaw was an NCB executive who decided that there was something wrong with the way in which the NCB's accounting system was being carried out, especially in respect of the purchase of spares and roof supports. During his investigations he, along with another employee of the NCB who was making independent inquiries, discovered that money was being spent that should not have been spent. Not long after that he was sacked from the NCB. Such was the nature of the evidence that Alan Grimshaw supplied that the Dowty Group paid back £1.3 million, so he saved the taxpayer that amount. Some would argue that a lot more money should have been paid back, but Alan Grimshaw was given the sack for his pains. Around the time that Alan Grimshaw was trying to make representations to all and sundry he tried to get the NCB and the British Association of Colliery Management, his trade union, to take up the investigation into the scandalous use of money for the purchase of supports, but he did not get far. All that emerged was that Dr. David Leigh, a member of the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs, said that between 1969 and 1972 as much as £74 million was spent by the NCB that could not be accounted for by inflation. Finally, a Select Committee was set up in 1973 by the Tory Government, who were then in power. It had almost concluded its findings just before the general election of February 1974. As a result of a split vote, the Committee decided to investigate the NCB's purchase of roof supports and spares and the excess money that had been paid for them. In its investigations it heard evidence from Alan Grimshaw, Dr. David Leigh and, I believe, Fred Evett. In the report the most important references to the financial losses were replaced by asterisks because it was said that they were state secrets. I should explain my position in this matter. After the general election in February 1974 I was asked whether I wanted to sit on the Committee that was investigating the NCB's supplies. I joined the Committee merely to take part in that investigation. When I went into the Committee on the Wednesday afternoon I found that the loose-leafed reports were all ready for reading and for subsequent publication. We were asked to take them away with us to read during the following fortnight and then to return to go through them. Having read the report, I returned to continue the investigation. It should be borne in mind that at that time there had been substantial changes in the composition of the Committee because of the general 1036 election that had just taken place. Some hon. Members had been made Ministers, others had left, and so on. There is no doubt that that was the only reason why I managed to get on to the Committee. Because the investigation had not been thorough enough, because the evidence of Alan Grimshaw and Dr. David Leigh had not been properly recorded in the minutes, and because the findings were not sufficient in view of the serious allegations that had been made, I suggested that Lord Robens, who was the chainnan of the NCB when the allegations were made between 1961 and 1971, should be brought before the Committee and interviewed. What in fact happened was that Sir Derek Ezra—now Lord Ezra, a Liberal peer—was asked to appear before the Committee to give evidence. At the time that these allegations were made in the middle and late 1960s Derek Ezra was at the other end of the NCB. He was at the sales end, selling coal; he had never been involved in mining and the purchasing of equipment in the NCB. So the Committee had the wrong man before it. I suspect that it did not call Lord Robens because one of the firms involved in what could be described as a squalid deal was Bonsor Engineering Ltd., in which Lord Robens' son was involved. Bonsor Engineering Ltd., a relatively small Nottinghamshire engineering firm that was supplying roof supports to the NCB, was taken over by Dowty in 1969. Dowty had also supplied roof supports to the NCB. It was suggested that, with its goodwill, the company was worth about £1.4 million, which Dowry paid over. Some people raised eyebrows at that and said that it was a lot of money for Dowty to spend on Bonsor Engineering Ltd. A fellow called William Sheppard was brought in as an independent arbitrator to look into the matter. He just happened to be an NCB executive who later moved up the ladder at the NCB and became number two. There were additional goodwill payments every year between 1971 and 1975, totalling £1,261,339. More than £2 million was paid for the engineering firm, yet almost 50 per cent. of the supports that it supplied could not carry the yield load, according to an NCB man in 1967, and in 1968 the NCB withdrew its approval of Bonsor supports. Dowty had taken over Bonsor Engineering Ltd. in 1969, when it was almost a worthless organisation. It did not have even one order with the National Coal Board at the time of the takeover, but these payments and further goodwill payments were made until 1975. When, some time after the 1974 general election I requested that Lord Robens be brought before the Committee, as hon. Members will probably guess, I did not get a seconder. That is a problem that sometimes occurs at the national executive committee. I understand the difficulties, but that was the end of it for me on that committee. I had managed to be on the Committee for one hour and 10 minutes altogether, and I do not wish to be on any more after that experience. My problem does not worry me, because it is long gone. It was easy for the Labour Government to find somebody to take my place on the Committee, and they did so two or three days later. Alan Grimshaw, having given evidence, was sacked towards the end of 1974. The report was issued in the spring of 1974, and in December he was moved. In June 1974, so that the National Coal Board could let Mr. Grimshaw know that it had got it in for him, he was moved, despite the fact that he was earning about £5,000 a year. That was not small fry. That was what his 1037 important job yielded him then, but he was moved to counting mops and buckets, and he was given the push at the end of the year. The House had a chance to restore Alan Grimshaw to his position. He had appeared before a Select Committee, had given evidence and had got the sack as a result. That is the opinion of most people who have read the case over and over again throughout the years. The issue went to the Committee of Privileges in 1976. This wonderful Mother of Parliaments, with all its talk about freedom for individuals, examined the Grimshaw case and decided that, despite the fact that he had given evidence as a free man, it could not assist him in ensuring that he received some reparation or compensation for his dismissal. As a bitter man he left Doncaster and went to Morpeth. I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Morpeth (Mr. Grant), who is very ill, and has been for some considerable time, tried to help him as best he could. In July last year, I brought a petition before the House so that Parliament could, in what turned out to be the last few months of Alan Grimshaw's life, straighten the matter out, but it has not done so. The petition went to the Leader of the House and finished up in the same place as many other petitions. I am talking about somebody who came to the House and gave evidence in good faith. It is a great recommendation, is it not, when somebody gives evidence before a Select Committee and then finds that he is on the rack, counting mops and buckets for six months, and is finally sacked? Now he is dead. A few months ago he passed away after a heart attack. His wife, Isabelle, intends to carry on the fight, and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Morpeth is very ill, I said that I would continue to raise this matter. I appeal to the Leader of the House. We have corresponded on this issue, and it has been raised during business questions and in various other ways. The Leader of the House will recall that he was on the ground floor when this matter began way back in 1973. Even though Alan Grimshaw has passed away, surely Parliament can provide some recompense for events and for his testimony before that Select Committee. That is why I thought it necessary that the matter should be dealt with before hon. Members rise for the Easter recess. I call upon the Leader of the House to try, even at this late stage, to find some way of ensuring that Alan Grimshaw's memory is not tarnished in the way that his life was after he appeared before the Select Committee. For all his efforts, he finished up on the dole.

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