JLR cyber attack update: Government exploring ways to support supply chain and jobs amid shutdown - what happened?
The Government is exploring ways to support Jaguar Land Rover’s supply chain after the cyber attack.
As frantic efforts continue at JLR to recover its systems, the government is exploring ways to support JLR's supply chain and the 200,000 jobs within it. One idea under consideration, according to ITV News, was taxpayer money being used to purchase parts.
These components could then be sold back to JLR as its manufacturing operations got back up to speed, resulting in no direct losses for the public purse. The "just-in-time" nature of automotive production means that many suppliers had little choice but to shut down immediately after JLR announced its manufacturing freeze.
Industry sources estimate that around 25% of suppliers have already taken steps to pause production and lay off workers, many of them by "banking hours" they will have to work in future. Union demands for a COVID-style furlough scheme have not been taken up by ministers, who have said that support to date has come only from JLR.
Industry minister Chris McDonald said on a visit to a West Midlands manufacturer on Tuesday he was "supremely confident" that JLR would get through the cyber attack. He added: "What I really want this to be is a wake-up call to British industry. I'm affronted by this attack on British industry. This is a serious attack on a flagship of British industry."
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, costing it and its suppliers hundreds of millions of pounds.