Sell-off guru facing rail grilling

SIR Steve Robson, the former Treasury mandarin credited with masterminding much of the Thatcher government privatisation programme, is to face a grilling from MPs this week on the failure of Railtrack and the troubled part-privatisation of London Underground.

Robson, who played a central role in the sale of Railtrack and the move to the Private Finance Initiative which spawned the Tube public private partnership model, has been called before the Public Administration Committee, the Select Committee that shadows the work of the Prime Minister's Downing Street units and the Cabinet Office.

Committee sources confirmed Robson, Second Permanent Secretary at the Treasury until he quit a year ago, will be asked to justify the method of the railways' privatisation and the similar model he proposed for London's Tube lines in the light of the recent problems endured by both.

The committee is investigating the involvement of the private sector in public services. It is also looking at whether the influence of business people working in Whitehall departments or other public sector organisations threatens the public sector's ' traditional ethos and principles'.

Transport workers' union leader Bill Morris will also appear before the committee at the hearing on Thursday.