The government could start buying parts from Jaguar Land Rover’s suppliers in a plan to protect manufacturing jobs from the impact of a severe cyber-attack.
The business secretary, Peter Kyle, is considering a plan that would see the government buy parts made by the suppliers, and then sell them back to JLR when it resumes production of its vehicles, according to a report by ITV News.
JLR, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, was hit by a cyber-attack on 31 August, forcing it to freeze production in a shutdown that is expected to drag on into October.
The shutdown has meant that for weeks, Britain’s biggest carmaker has been unable to produce at any of its factories across the UK, Slovakia, Brazil and India.
The shutdown poses an existential threat to JLR’s suppliers, who rely on its “just in time” production schedules.
Unions have called for a furlough scheme for workers who are suffering because of the shutdown. While it is understood that ministers are considering various ways the government could provide support, so far they have not formally committed to providing any financial aid to help smaller suppliers survive.
Buying parts is said to be one of several options under consideration. But it could be technically difficult, because the carmaker does not have significant spare warehouse space to store extra parts, ITV News reported.
Such a scheme would also be based on the idea that JLR has not suffered a permanent loss of sales due to the shutdown. The scale of any government purchase could be “very significant”, ITV News said.
Both Kyle and the industry minister Chris McDonald met employees from JLR and its suppliers earlier this week.
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Kyle said on Tuesday: “Getting JLR back online as soon as possible is my top priority, providing much-needed certainty to workers and suppliers.”
The disruption at JLR comes as it faces falling profits amid the impact of US tariffs and declining sales. The carmaker reported that underlying pre-tax profits dropped 49% to £351m in the three months to June, including when the company temporarily paused exports to the US.
The company also faced criticism last year over its rebrand of Jaguar, and its new electric cars are not expected to launch until next year.
