Government expected to announce a package of financial help for the Jaguar Land Rover supply chain

ITV News understands that the government is to announce a package of financial help for the JLR supply chain. The details are expected to be announced on Monday.

They are thought to include some tax breaks to help suppliers get through the JLR shutdown which was caused by a cyber attack three weeks ago.

On Thursday Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) said parts of its IT systems are back online amid a “phased restart” of its operations as it continues to recover from a damaging cyber attack. The British carmaker has been forced to suspend production at its UK factories for several weeks after being targeted by hackers.

The shutdown is expected to last until October 1 at the earliest. But the company said it had been able to get some of its digital systems running again and can now begin clearing a backlog of payments to suppliers.

The company has halted production at its engine manufacturing site in Wolverhampton and factories in Halewood on Merseyside and Solihull in the West Midlands. The sites typically build more than 1,000 cars each day.

JLR increased its processing capacity for invoices which meant it was able to resume payments to its suppliers.

Unions and politicians have warned that small suppliers producing parts for the car giant could collapse without urgent financial support.

JLR said its global parts logistics centre, which supplies spare parts that are used to service its customers’ vehicles, was returning to full operations.

It has also been able to resume processing wholesales of its vehicles which means it can sell and register cars for its clients faster.