The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is conducting high-level engagement with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and the wider British automotive industry as car production remains suspended at JLR’s facilities following a cyber attack.
DBT representatives today (Friday 19 September) held an extraordinary meeting with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) Automotive Components Section amid the ongoing disruption to the wider supply chain in the UK.
During talks, officials heard about some of the challenges the sector is currently facing thanks to the sudden shutdown at JLR. The Tata-owned carmaker produced over 300,000 vehicles in 2024 and employs over 30,000 people, so is a cornerstone of the UK’s automotive industry.
The DBT send it was working to understand the impact to the supply chain, and that the meeting had allowed it to listen directly and understand the challenges and concerns JLR’s suppliers are facing.
Computer Weekly understands that many of these suppliers have had to shut down their own assembly lines since they cannot now send their finished products to JLR, and some are facing the prospect of lay-offs as a result.
“We know this is a worrying time for those affected, and although Jaguar Land Rover are taking the lead on support for their own supply chain, our cyber experts continue to support them to resolve the issue as quickly as possible,” said minister for industry Chris McDonald.
McDonald additionally met with West Midlands mayor Richard Parker on Thursday 18 September to discuss the impact of the JLR shutdown on the region.
On 17 September, trade union Unite urged the government to consider setting up a furlough scheme – similar to the nationwide scheme put in place for many sectors during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 – to preserve the jobs of an estimated 200,000 people.
“Workers in the JLR supply chain must not be made to pay the price for the cyber attack,” said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham. “It is the government’s responsibility to protect jobs and industries that are a vital part of the economy.”
Unite has advised some of the affected workers that they may be able to apply for Universal Credit.
JLR production is currently scheduled to resume on 24 September, but according to the BBC, Unite believes there is “zero chance” of this happening.
Ongoing incident
The JLR incident began at the end of August but first became public on 2 September when the Liverpool Echo revealed that workers at the firm’s Halewood plant in Merseyside had been told not to come into work.
The attack came just days after the new 75 batch of vehicle registration plates were made available, a regular six-monthly switchover that goes alongside a boost to car sales in the UK.
JLR subsequently revealed that data was exfiltrated from its systems during the attack, although the precise nature of this data has not been disclosed.
The attack was swiftly claimed by a hacking collective referring to itself as Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters – an apparent collaboration between three associated groups, Scattered Spider, Lapsus$ and ShinyHunters. It should be noted that attribution is a highly-imprecise science and so the veracity of these links has not been officially confirmed by law enforcement.
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