Mr Justice Wyn Williams has delivered his High Court ruling on the case brought against the Ministry of Defence (MOD) by Prospect, representing professional defence industry workers. The union had argued for a judicial review, on the basis that the MOD’s ‘early release’ scheme was ‘unlawful’ in avoiding normal rates of severance pay which – in 2006 / 07 had cost £17 million. Mr Justice Williams rejected this call, saying that he had “reached the clear conclusion that this claim for judicial review must fail”.

The MOD’s defence was that it wanted to give workers ‘maximum flexibility’ to leave the service early. Given that the ‘early release scheme’ offers workers leaving the service in these circumstances considerably less than would be the case if they left on compulsory early retirement or redundancy terms, it is a moot point which side is likely to achieve that ‘maximum flexibility’.

Argyll must now wait and see what impact this has on the significant workforce employed on the wide spectrum of defence establishments here. As we have published earlier, it is known that the senior management of the Faslane / Coulport base is considering the feasibility of privatising services at the base, the UK’s major nuclear submarine facility.