Astra Training Services (In Receivership) And Ast Training Ltd.

EDM number 2451 in 1992-93, proposed by Rhodri Morgan on 18/10/1993.

That this House deplores the collusion of AST Training Ltd and Arthur Andersen, receivers of Astra Training Services, the privatised skillcentre network of the Department of Employment, which has enabled AST to buy 13 of the 27 Astra training centres, including premises at Cardiff and Port Talbot, while alternative purchasers were unable to get information from Arthur Andersen; considers the Secretary of State for Employment's lack of interest in the collapse of Britain's only collective provision of engineering and electronic craft and technician level training into the arms of Patrick Doyle, Chief Executive of AST, a convicted fraudster with an appalling track record in employment and training practices, to be negligent hand washing of the worst kind; and calls on the Office of Fair Trading to investigate whether AST's newly acquired dominant market position in skill training is in the public interest.

This motion has been signed by a total of 65 MPs.