Details surrounding the ownership of TVR, the sports car maker, by Nikolai Smolenski, the Russian oligarch, have been passed to the Companies Investigation Branch of the Department of Trade and Industry, it emerged yesterday.

Jim Fitzpatrick, a DTI minister, told the Transport and General Workers’ Union (T&G) that he had referred information to the division after a campaign by the union for an investigation into the process that enabled Mr Smolenski to buy back the business after it had fallen into administration.

TVR landed in administration in December, with the loss of 260 jobs from its Blackpool factory. In February, Mr Smolenski bought back the business with the intention of restarting production outside Britain. He originally bought the company in 2004. The business went through months of uncertainty last year over whether it would leave Blackpool for another location in Britain or on the Continent.

Peter Booth, the T&G’s national organiser for manufacturing, said: “This is a good decision by the DTI. It is the first step in delivering justice for our members, but there is a long way to go in the process.”

The DTI declined to comment. The T&G had also pressed for a review of the administrative process that allows a previous owner to buy back a business after it has collapsed.

Mr Fitzpatrick has offered the union a participatory role in a working party on “insolvency, employee rights and employee buyouts”.

TVR is expected to resume production in Italy.

Times Recommends

• Minister in talks with Saudis to protect creditors
• Premier Inn hits back in £29-a-room row
• Bankers hit back at 'populist' bonus supertax