emails Searched to Find Biase Against Virgin Trains
Official investigators into the
Government’s West Coast franchise fiasco have demanded an electronic
audit of Transport Department staff e-mails in a bid to unearth evidence
of a biased "Anyone But Branson" campaign.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin made the admission while giving evidence to the transport select committee.
Appearing
alongside his Permanent Secretary Philip Rutnam, he said the two
independent investigations into the shambles had asked ministers and
senior officials to instigate a ‘e-mail capture’ system to
electronically scan for and root out any potentially biased internal
references to Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Trains during their bid to
retain the franchise.
The minister was forced to explain to
a select committee why his department ploughed ahead with the bidding
process for the West Coast Main Line contract despite knowing the
process was flawed.
Mr
McLoughlin said ‘basic mistakes’ had led to a ‘catastrophic failure.’ It
would be a ‘text book chapter’ for future Civil Service training.
The 13-year deal was handed to rival
firm First Group in August, but last month days after becoming Mr McLoughlin announced serious flaws had been found.
The
deal was cancelled, and ministers spent £1million drawing up plans for
the government to take over running the line from London to Scotland
before asking Sir Richard to continue providing services for up to a
year.Mr McLoughlin told
the transport select committee: 'Mistakes which were made should not
have been made. It is very regrettable and very serious for the
department.
‘We have
already apologised to the bidders involved and the taxpayers who have a
right to expect better and I would repeat that.'
An official report this week claimed
the Department for Transport was biased against Sir Richard Branson’s
Virgin Trains bid to continue running the West Coast mainline.
Louise
Ellman, chairman of the committee, said the interim report 'can only be
described as a damning indictment’ of the Department for Transport.
The fiasco was ‘major catastrophe’
that had huge implications for the whole of the rail franchise process, she added.
But Mr McLoughlin insisted
there were ‘a lot of people who work incredibly hard in the department
who had nothing to do with this West Coast franchise and I wouldn’t want
them to be condemned’.
He
said it was now ‘obvious’ that decisions were taken by middle-ranking
officials which were ‘not referred up’ to senior civil servants or
ministers’.
.JPG)
