London Underground

They are certainly culpable in a number of respects, and they sign off the contract at the end of the day, but they went to the consultants, who charged them a hefty fee. I remember, by the way, that whenever different expert witnesses gave evidence on other topics, such as the safety aspects of splitting up the maintenance from the operation, all of a sudden more consultants who had been paid by Government came along to put a case in favour. This was clearly a waste of money, and the taxpayer was ripped off. There is now a colossal waste of money associated with Metronet's administration. I believe the taxpayer is currently paying £14 million a week through Transport for London. If that goes on until 1 April, the total will reach £0.5 billion. In addition, there is the put option guarantee: the Government guaranteed 95 per cent. of Metronet's borrowings from the banks, and the banks have now enforced that, as they had a right to do after six months. That will cost the taxpayer a whopping £1.7 billion. In this context, the repeated position of Treasury and Transport Ministers at the time that those private companies were taking a risk is truly a hollow proposition.