RAVENSCRAIG

That this House, recognising the outstanding contribution that Scottish steel workers have made and could continue to make to the industrial and economic life of Scotland and the United Kingdom, and deploring the failure of the government to prepare for a long foreseen contingency with serious implications for the people and industry of Scotland and the United Kingdom, appoints a special Select Committee to examine the situation arising from the British Steel announcement of its decision to close Ravenscraig and Hunterston in September, the feasibility of securing the long-term continuation of the steel industry in Scotland, particularly in plate, tubes, slabs and strip products, and by the introduction of the new technology of thin slab casting, the creation of new jobs in Lanarkshire, the reclamation and development of sites that have been and may be vacated by the steel industry, the development of the communications and social infrastructure needed to build a new industrial base in Lanarkshire, and the contributions to the resources that can be made and are required from British Steel, the European Community, the government, and local authorities, and the additionality of those contributions.