The boss of a firm that kept a blacklist of workers on behalf of some of the biggest names in construction has died, just two weeks after giving evidence to a committee of MPs investigating the illegal activity.
Ian Kerr ran the Consulting Association from 1993 until it was shut down following a raid by the Information Commissioner’s Office in 2009. Giving evidence for nearly four hours to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee on 27 November Kerr said he collated and disseminated information on building workers for the likes of Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska, Balfour Beatty, Amec and John Mowlem.
He specifically named the Sir Robert McAlpine Group as one of the main instigators and funds providers for the Consulting Association, whose first chair was Cullum McAlpine.
Kerr admitted that his primary function was to collect information on people and provide it for the database’s clients who didn’t want to employ those people. He said he believed he was the wrong person to target and that the members of the Consulting Association bore all the responsibility.
According to SHP’s colleagues on fellow UBM title Building, which broke the story of Kerr’s death yesterday, he had been set to be a key witness on behalf of a group of blacklisted workers preparing to sue Sir Robert McAlpine in the High Court as part of a compensation claim mounted by the Blacklist Support Group.
It also quoted Scottish Affairs Select Committee chair Ian Davidson MP as saying: “We offer our condolences to Ian Kerr’s wife, family and friends. We are glad we gave him the opportunity to come and give his side of the story in evidence to the committee on such a contentious topic as blacklisting.”
Kerr is believed to have died on Tuesday (11 December) but the cause of his death is not yet known.
