Statement by the Transport Secretary on Cooperation with the Indian Railways

Deputy Speaker,

I wish to inform this House as to an agreement that has been reached between the Home Office, the Department for Transport, British Rail Engineering, Indian Railways and the respective offices of the Indian government. As some of you might know, the Indian Railways have been working on one of the world’s most ambitious and successful railway electrification programmes, electrifying tens of thousands of kilometres of track in just two decades or so. It’s an amazing achievement not just of the Indian Railways, but of the Indian people, and it is one that I feel it is proper for the United Kingdom to give its congratulations for, and one that the Department for Transport has realised the United Kingdom can learn a lot from, especially as we are dealing with a significant labour shortage across the whole of the country and every sector.

As the Indian electrification programme is coming to an end, the Department for Transport contacted Indian Railways and Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Minister for Railways. We made it clear to them that we seek to build a long-term cooperation with the Indian Railways in which they help us with their vital skills in electrification, both in terms of labour and in consultancy and advice on projects. After some negotiations, we have come to an agreement that allows British Rail to recruit workers from Indian Railways and its contractors with significant experience in the railway electrification process for long-term work in the United Kingdom, including in senior roles.

Deputy Speaker, I mustn’t understate the significance and indeed the size of the programme. We will need many thousands of workers from across the world to help us electrify our railways, and if people move here from India, it is not just them who ought to have the right to move here: they should be able to bring their families along. In total, we estimate that some fifty thousand people shall move to the United Kingdom as of the result of this deal. As a part of the deal, we have agreed that the Department for Transport takes on the costs of relocation to the United Kingdom over the coming five years, at an estimate of £5,000 per person moving here. This includes payment of fees, aeroplane tickets, as well as finding initial housing for the people relocating to the United Kingdom over the coming years.

We have arranged with the Home Office that people hired for work under British Rail Engineering as a result of this programme shall automatically be eligible for a Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) Visa. This visa allows them to stay in the United Kingdom for up to three years and can be extended. If they stay in the United Kingdom for five years under this Visa, the holders shall be eligible for Indefinite Leave to Remain and then British citizenship. Considering the project of electrification will take twenty years, if not more if we decide to also electrify various rural lines that are now set for battery service, we must be prepared for the fact that many of these workers will permanently move to this country and continue working on our railways for decades to come.

The Indian Railways shall have oversight over the recruitment process, and help us in making sure that our recruitment operations do not damage the Indian Railways as they stand today: people will be naturally leaving the electrification industry, but we mustn’t, for example, recruit only the most skilled workers or workers from a specific region. We will specifically seek out an ethnically and gender-balanced workforce to the extent that this is possible, and place specific focus on recruiting those from other disadvantaged backgrounds. We risk placing this project in a long list of projects that have harmed India in a colonial manner, and through moves that are aware of this history and the possible harms that can be caused, we aim to make this a decolonial rather than a colonial project. Decolonisation and decarbonisation must go hand in hand, Deputy Speaker, and this government is making sure that happens!

This Motion was written by /u/Inadorable">The Most Hon. Dame Ina LG LT LP LD GCMG DBE CT CVO MP MSP MS MLA FRS on behalf of His Majesty’s 34th Government.

This debate will end at 10pm on the 19th November.